Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-018"
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"en.20100907.4.2-018"2
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"I will begin with some good news for Mr Barroso, the kind of news on which he may even be congratulated. His appearance today has been valued higher than tickets to the next Sting concert in Prague, which cost less than EUR 150. However, I will begin with a story. Mr Barroso, in Poland there is a popular story which tells how a man climbs a tree and begins sawing off the branch on which he is sitting. Another man walks by below, and says to him, ‘If you saw off that branch, you will fall.’ The second man walks on, and the branch breaks. The first man falls out of the tree, gets up, looks at the second man and says, ‘Is he a prophet or something?’
Ladies and gentlemen, the European Conservatives, even before our political group was formed, were like the second man, who said to the man sitting on the branch of European bureaucracy: ‘You are sawing off the branch on which you are sitting.’ In your speech, today, I can see a chance that this process of sawing off the branch will end. You have set out many ideas which are most certainly worthy of support, and I think they have been put together in such a way as to please every group in this Parliament. However, we have to agree with Mr Schulz that it was a forward-looking plan, but that we did not hear – and I am not pleased with you about this – an analysis of the current situation in the Union. Why is the Union performing in the way that it is? Why is the Union not liked by such a large number of the citizens, and why is it not meeting their expectations? We come, here, to an important point. It is very good that you concentrated on economic development, on the need for this development in Europe and on the need for new jobs. I certainly do share the position that one of the greatest problems of the economy in Europe today is unemployment. However, let us be honest. One cannot have the right kind of concern about the fate of the unemployed and about the disappearance of jobs in Europe, on the one hand, while, on the other, proposing economic solutions which quite naturally lead to the export of jobs from Europe to other continents. These two things cannot be separated. We cannot say we want to increase the level of employment in Europe, on the one hand, while, on the other, imposing new burdens and a new sentence of death by bureaucracy on European firms and the European economy. This has to be stopped. In your speech, Mr Barroso, I can see you are thinking in the right direction. You spoke about how Europe must speak around the world with one voice. We say this, here, very often, but we can, after all, see easily that different governments in Europe have completely different approaches in fundamental areas of foreign policy. This is a fact which must not be ignored. How, therefore, can Europe speak with one voice on the global stage if different European governments speak with different voices? Ladies and gentlemen, let us not deceive ourselves – that is how it will be. You can, while sitting in this Chamber, close your eyes and pretend that those 27 governments do not exist, but they do. They are elected by the citizens of the European Union, and we are defending the rights of those governments to represent their citizens in the Union arena. We want a balance between Union affairs and national affairs in Europe, and this is why we are going to defend the idea of the nation-state, in the context, of course, of the European Union. However, in saying this, I would like to say that I agree with everything that has been said in this Chamber. I say this, now, from the bottom of my heart. We cannot accept situations in which one or other of the governments in Europe tries, for domestic purposes, to ignite what has, in Europe, been the powder keg of nationalism and chauvinism. There can be no consent to this, but this is what is happening in many European countries. This year, we have already had examples of countries bordering Poland where attempts have been made to make political capital out of matters related to minorities. One of the European Union’s greatest achievements is the fact that Europe has been an area of democracy and tolerance where war has been absent for 60 years. I willingly acknowledge this, although I am not a great enthusiast of the Union, but I do appreciate this. This is something which must be maintained. I would also like to say that we must be more open and credible in what we deliver to the European Union’s citizens. The greatest problem of our Community is that one thing is said in our declarations, while the facts and what the citizens see being done is something completely different. I believe in Europe, and we, the European Conservatives, believe in the Union. However, we believe in the Union in its diversity. We do not believe that there is one new united state which is supposed to fuse into a single nation. This plan will not be accepted. The citizens of Europe understand perfectly well that one can be a good Pole, a good European or a good German, and that we can live together, treating each other with respect and working together to build a common future. Mr President, I hope you succeed. However, the way to repairing the situation is not to repeat the old mistakes. I want to tell you very clearly that, in my opinion, Europe must not try to solve the problems which we have before us by repeating the mistakes of the past. Today, in your speech, I see a chance for a Europe of greater economic freedom and a Europe of closer integration, by which I mean the common market. I am very pleased that the idea of the Single Market Act came from this Parliament, from the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. It came from the Monti report, which was written in the Committee whose chair is my colleague, Mr Herber, and we are proud of this. It is this kind of strengthening of the market which we want. We want a common market and greater freedom in the economy."@en1
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