Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-07-Speech-3-368"
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"Mr President, first of all, I should like to thank all honourable Members who have been able to offer general or sometimes qualified support. For those of you who feel unable to support the proposition, I hope, over time, to win you round and I hope that you will indeed end up being proud of what we have created together. By the way, I have never suggested I should have an aeroplane.
I also recognise that there should be opportunities for different people to come into the service. I appointed Mr Vygaudas Ušackas as head of our delegation in Afghanistan; he was also a politician, a foreign minister and a diplomat. There are examples already. I can see where one is able to use the requirements of the treaty but recognise the additional skills that we can bring in, within what the treaty allows us to do.
Ms Hautala, thank you for your support. I will work very closely with the Subcommittee on Human Rights and, as you know, I am reviewing how best we can achieve our human rights objectives. Mr Saryusz-Wolski, Mr Vigenin, Mr Piotrowski, Mr Poręba and others all raised the very important issue of geographical balance. I do not know what else to say, other than you have my full commitment to it and within the review, you will be able to see if I have done it.
What is absolutely clear to me is that we are going to appoint on merit. I have asked people to send me the brightest and the best. Because I am beginning to hold the interviews, I can tell you that is actually happening. I can tell you that they are coming from different parts of the European Union. So you will, I hope, see very quickly that I will do as much as I can for geographical balance and gender balance in this first tranche of appointees, in the next tranche, which we will be moving forward with in September, and within the central structures. For gender balance, we need to do more to encourage people to apply for the positions, to get women to come forward. When they do, they are truly excellent but we need more of them. So, if you can do more to encourage people, particularly women, please do so. We will come back to geographical balance in the review. You will be able to judge it properly at that point, but my commitment is absolute on that.
As regards being able to increase the capacity of what we do on the ground, Mr Danjean, there are recent incidents which demonstrate that. You will know that I am about to go on a series of visits over the next few weeks, including back to the Middle East. We have been looking at whether the EU should do more to support the openings of the crossings in Gaza, and I will visit Gaza again. You also know, of course, that we have been engaged in Kyrgyzstan and there will be a debate on that later. There are many instances where it is very important to make sure that we are able to support the people and support the opportunities for my colleague Kristalina Georgieva to get aid in.
I think that I have answered all the big questions that came out of the debate. Can I end, as I began earlier, by saying thank you so much to all of those who have engaged in this debate: the rapporteurs in particular, you, Mr President, but also individual honourable Members who have taken time to talk with me. I am extremely grateful and I believe that what we are setting in train now is something that this House can be truly proud of.
Thank you very much. If you wish to offer me one, that is different! But I have never suggested it.
Can I answer a few specific points, many of which were mentioned several times by honourable Members. I will begin with something that Mrs Lunacek began with: the need to consider equal opportunities very carefully. It is not only a question of equal opportunities. It is also equality of access: ensuring the processes and procedures that we put in place make it possible to bring about the geographical and gender balance that honourable Members have discussed. Ensuring our processes and procedures are capable of that is one thing that I have had much experience of, so I will do that.
A number of honourable Members – Mr Kalfin and Ms Gräßle in particular – talked about resources. I completely understand and recognise that we have to use resources well. I am very well aware of the economic backdrop against which this Service is coming into being. However, even if the economic backdrop were different, I would want to see an efficient Service operating well and using resources extremely well.
Specifically on staff, because a number of people have asked and because I see all kinds of numbers being bandied around: we currently have about 800 diplomatic staff, a third of whom operate overseas. I will give you three comparisons: France has 6 300, the Netherlands 2 000, Spain 1 000. There are Member States who have many fewer staff; there are many Member States who have comparable numbers. However, I think that will give you a sense of where we currently are.
I am also mindful that I am asking staff to operate in a post-Lisbon Treaty era, where the jobs that the rotating Presidency used to do are no longer done by them. That means for some of our delegations – particularly New York and Geneva, where additional staff would have been put in to cover for each Presidency – that we are very short of people. My commitment to you is to have an efficient service that is capable of doing the job that we have all agreed needs to be done. I am very comfortable that we will have full transparency in doing that. I am very comfortable with the role that the European Parliament will be playing as regards the Committee on Budgets and budget discharge. That is my commitment and I will do that.
Mr Graf Lambsdorff, concerning the specific question that you asked me: I stand by the statement that I made today. I think you have before you the text negotiated with Parliament, which you find in the revised draft on the EEAS basic organisation. What I am doing is set out in that text. I think that clears that up.
Mr Tannock, you and a number of honourable Members, raised again national parliament involvement. This is something that I think is really interesting. The structures that I am planning to set up in the EEAS will cover relations with the European Parliament but also need to take on board relations with national parliaments. I should mention the famous day when I was travelling between Moscow, Kiev, Spain and Brussels – but was not unfortunately in Palma, Majorca at the same time. One of the reasons I was in Spain was to meet with the Chairs of all the Foreign Affairs Committees from each Member State. I will be doing the same thing again in the autumn, thanks to the Belgian Presidency, who are bringing them all together. I am very keen to work with national parliaments. We just need to make sure that we have a proper way of doing that."@en1
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