Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-06-Speech-1-043"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20100906.16.1-043"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I would like to begin by thanking Mr Zalba Bidegain, because I know that he has worked really hard on this and I think that he has achieved a very good result.
Tomorrow’s vote on the safeguard clauses for the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea will, in fact, be a historic one for two reasons. Firstly, it means that we will now begin discussions regarding the most comprehensive Free Trade Agreement that the EU has ever concluded. It is the most radical agreement and the one that will result in the highest profits of any that we have been involved in. There is nothing strange about that, of course. It is essentially due to the fact that South Korea is one of our most important trade partners, the world’s 11th largest economy, and one of the first OECD countries with which the EU is concluding a Free Trade Agreement.
It is also the first agreement in which we are using ‘Global Europe’, where the starting point is Europe’s competitiveness and what is economically important rather than simply what is politically important. It is evident that we have ambitions. For example, we are doing more in the area of agriculture here, as far as free trade is concerned, than we have ever done before. It will open up a lot of opportunities for our industry. It will, of course, open up opportunities for our South Korean friends’ industry too, but that is what free trade is all about. It is difficult, it has been difficult and it will be difficult in the future, but things that are important are often very difficult. That is the whole point of it.
Secondly, this is the first case in which the European Parliament has been involved and has the power of codecision. This has meant that we have had to show that we can take responsibility, and I think we have done that. We have to show that we can bring something to the table and strengthen the EU’s role rather than simply acting as a brake. I think we have achieved that. Not all of our demands will be listened to, of course, but the simple fact that we have made them means that the Commission will be forced to pay more heed to the issue of social conditions and non-tariff barriers to trade, for example.
I have one opinion that I would like to highlight in particular, because I do not agree with everything that we voted on in the committee. It concerns the question of regional safeguard measures. I have my doubts about this after the Treaty of Lisbon, and I think that it would be better if, instead, we introduced safeguard measures throughout the EU. With an internal market and free movement, there are considerable opportunities to circumvent this type of regional safeguard measure, and I do not believe that anyone here would want to stir up or call into question either free movement or the internal market. Overall, however, tomorrow’s vote is an important signal that we are entering a new period with regard to trade policy, and that is a good thing."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples