Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-011"
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"en.20100907.4.2-011"2
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"Mr President, Mr Barroso, Presidents of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, the chairs and the presidents are happy this morning, and you have demonstrated that you can be present without penalty. Well, that is indeed democracy. Thank you to all of you.
We therefore need more Europe, not to interfere in the details of everyday life, but to address our common challenges together in a much more efficient way, and – a question I will come back to – in a more profitable and less costly way.
As I was saying, our fellow citizens are wondering why Europe is not more efficient and more organised, and why it is not listened to more on the world stage. They quite rightly expect that the economic and financial efforts which they have been asked to make will bear fruit, and that we will bring everyone out of the difficulties together.
We need more European governance. It is for us, Parliament and Commission, to work towards this aim, to convince the Member States to work together and to invest together. This is not about attacking the sovereignty or the prestige of our Member States. On the contrary, it is the only way of seriously and effectively building a future for the 500 million European citizens and for future generations.
I therefore ask the Commission – I ask you, Mr Barroso, but every other Commissioner too – to take more initiatives to propose the measures and reforms that we need in Europe so that things function better, and to explain these projects to our fellow citizens.
Along with my group, I would like our Parliament to support these efforts by using its new prerogatives as a colegislator with the Council. This is not solely a question of power, it is a question of comprehension, and it is a question that we must discuss in order to make Europe progress.
President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, while we must be ambitious, we must also look back at the path that has been travelled. I believe that, on several important subjects, Europe has no cause to be ashamed of its actions during these past few months. It was Europe which took the initiative to reform the financial markets after the Wall Street crisis of autumn 2009. It was Europe which, after having suffered unprecedented speculative attacks in the previous spring, took measures which were also unprecedented to strengthen and stabilise its economy. The initial effects of this policy have already been felt, but we must go even further.
Europe has also played a pioneering role in the fight against global warming. It really needs to be said: the Copenhagen conference left a bitter taste in the mouth. Our ambitions are unchanged, and the cap is now fixed for good. We can be proud of that.
What do we have to do in the months and years to come to consolidate our actions, to strengthen the confidence of our fellow citizens in our joint actions? I will suggest three ways.
The first is to strengthen our economy, to reduce inequalities through a series of measures which will encourage returns on investments, the confidence of entrepreneurs and the possibility of developing new creative sources of wealth and jobs. Commissioners, Mr President, we must make the rules ‘jump’, as you have said, across borders. It is unacceptable that, in the 21st century, we still have draconian rules which no longer have anything to do with the reality of Europe.
The second is to take a more serious attitude in our common external policy and, as you have repeatedly said, to become a more respected actor in the world. We can no longer be content with saying that Europe is complicated, that it takes time and that we must be patient. We can also no longer be content with being the primary global donor without being able to guarantee that the aid that we send arrives at its destination along with Mr Putin’s and Mr Obama’s helicopters. On this as well, I believe that we must take a serious attitude.
Europe is one of the major global powers, and its main priority, in my opinion, must be to build relations as equals with its main partners, and, in particular, with the United States. I said this earlier here when talking about transatlantic relations.
However, this morning I also want to highlight the importance for Europe of building strategic and targeted relations, not only with Russia, but also with China, India and Brazil. I would like the European External Action Service to be an effective instrument from this point of view, and we can make sure that savings are made in our various Member States if we put this instrument in place.
The third way of making sure that the European structure is up to the challenges has to do with the key factor in all this: money. I know that we still need to discuss this in depth. Are we all going to continue to invest separately in innovation and research? In education and training? In security and defence? In our energy policy?
While the United States, China and India are able to push forward fundamental or applied research, positioning themselves in tomorrow’s markets, are we going to keep saying that we Europeans are too hesitant to pool our resources in order to achieve economies of scale and a leap forward in terms of efficiency? At the moment, we are forcing our researchers to leave Europe. We must absolutely make sure that our researchers want to come back and stay in Europe.
Mr Barroso, these are the real issues that we, Parliament and the Commission, must put on the table when we talk about negotiations on the financing of European projects for 2014-2020. These are the questions that our fellow citizens are asking themselves, and to which they are expecting serious answers.
The time has definitely come for Europe to use its own resources. Let us not be afraid of these words. In addition, the question of a European tax must not be taboo. This is not about creating a tax to be added to national taxes; on the contrary, it is about achieving economies of scale and making sure that public funds as a whole are spent in a better way, and thus, ultimately, reducing charges on households and businesses.
Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, the European and international dimension is evidence for the young generations, who are not expecting long speeches from us, but rather solutions to their problems and perspectives for their future. It must be our main objective to guarantee education and training for 15-25 year-olds. Stabilising our public finances and investing in innovation, opening new doors to allow them to make use of their talents in Europe, not necessarily in other countries – these are the priorities which must guide our actions and on which our fellow citizens will judge us.
Mr President, Commissioners, you must make proposals to us, and here I will repeat the words of a man that you all know, John Paul II: ‘Have no fear’. In order to make Europe progress, for our fellow citizens, for the PPE Group, we will be with you if you make good proposals.
As I have a few seconds left, I would like to say another thing to you: be provocative in the first instance; go far with your suggestions, and we will manage to come up with good proposals together for our fellow European citizens.
What is the state of the European Union? What have we done successfully together these past few years, and in what ways have we failed? What plans do we have? What political means and, in particular, what financial means will we make available for implementing them?
Mr President, this debate is welcome, and I am happy that Parliament and the Commission, the two Community institutions which represent and defend the general European interest, are this morning participating in this exercise, which the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) would like to be a forward-looking one.
Europeans sometimes – in fact, often – wonder what Europe is really doing to respond to their problems and their expectations. At the same time, as all the opinion polls have shown for years, they are asking not for less Europe, but for more Europe.
More Europe on the issue of migration: the Roma question, which requires a long-term European strategy, is a perfect illustration of the issue of respect for people.
More Europe to represent them in the world. How, for example, can we justify our absence from the negotiations between Israel and Palestine, when we are the primary donors in this region?
Europeans do not understand this, and they are right. Our fellow citizens are also aware that we need more Europe, not less, to safeguard our security, whether it is personal security, energy security or food security. They know that Europe must be better coordinated to create growth and jobs, as you described so well, to regulate the markets and to avoid renewed speculative attacks. They understand that we also need more Europe to reduce inequalities and to strengthen our European social model, our social market economy."@en1
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