Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-01-19-Speech-3-047-000"
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"Mr President, I am pleased to see that the sittings of the European Parliament are no less animated and rich in performances than those of the Hungarian Parliament, which makes me feel quite at home.
The Hungarian Presidency is convinced that the structural reforms of the Member States must be implemented in a more consistent manner and must be coordinated to a greater extent than before. The European Semester has begun and this is something new for everyone; not just for us Hungarians, but for you as well, as it is a completely new programme of the European Union. The Semester has begun with the Commission’s annual macro-economic growth report, and I would like to congratulate Mr Barroso on this excellent document, which is suitable for taking the first step, and which lays out the directions and issues that will serve as the basis for the debates that will be conducted in the various Council configurations during our Presidency.
Ladies and gentlemen, national credibility is, of course, also required when one intends to propose a common economic policy for Europe. I would like to inform you that there is a good chance that my home country, which has been on the wall of shame of the European Union for a long time due to the excessive deficit procedure initiated against it, now has a realistic chance of getting out of this situation. In 2011, Hungary’s budget deficit will be below 3% and we will be one of the two EU Member States whose national debt will decrease in 2011. This will be crucial for the credibility of our Presidency programme.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Hungarian Presidency considers it especially important that we strengthen the single market. We believe that the strengthening of the single market is one of the potential sources of economic growth. Our intention is to remove existing barriers, implement deregulation and extend the single market to new areas, such as digitalisation. We support the favourable business environment that is to be created for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Among the priority topics of the Hungarian Presidency are energy policy and innovation, which we will be discussing on 4 February at a joint summit. I would like to inform you that Hungary is of the opinion that it is crucial for us to remove any existing regulatory barriers in the field of energy policy and to establish the missing infrastructural links in order to create a real and interoperable energy market in Europe. A similarly important objective of the Hungarian Presidency is to ensure that Europe possesses diversified supply lines in the field of energy. European energy policy is standing before a breakthrough; the Member States have signed the agreements – I will be signing the Slovak–Hungarian agreement with the Slovak Prime Minister next week – that will enable the first north-south gas distribution network, ranging from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and through Romania to the Black Sea, to commence operation, thereby creating a complete interconnector. Since, for the last 40 years, we have been thinking in terms of east and west, a north-south connection has been missing, and this is where I consider the treaties to be signed a breakthrough.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Roma strategy is a priority aspect of the Hungarian Presidency, because there is no point in a smart Europe if it has no heart. Europe, however, will only have a heart if it creates opportunities for social inclusion for the most disadvantaged social groups. This is not the time to discuss the Roma strategy, and I would therefore only like to point out, as the leader of a country concerned on this issue, that we are all playing with fire, and if we do not manage to establish a Roma strategy at European level, the Roma communities that are already settled and, to a certain degree, already integrated, will once again choose a nomadic lifestyle within Europe, and the problem will thus be transmitted from the countries involved today to others as well. This provides the grounds for presenting a European strategic answer to the Roma issue, which otherwise falls under national competence, and I would personally be very proud if we could jointly manage to adopt a common European Roma strategy by the end of the Hungarian Presidency in June.
Ladies and gentlemen, I must also touch upon the matter of enlargement, even though I, too, am aware that understandably, there is a fear of enlargement in Europe. We are barely able to overcome our own internal problems, and under such circumstances, coming up with newer and newer ideas for enlargement is extremely risky. Nevertheless, the Hungarian Presidency would welcome the return of an optimistic approach to enlargement in Europe. We would welcome it if the European Union found that we have unfinished business before us, as not all European nations that could be integrated into the European Community are currently part of the European Union. Furthermore, I personally find it unfair that a country like Croatia, for example, which has shown better performance over the past years than Hungary, a Member State of the EU, is still left outside and is not allowed to join the circle of Member States. The Hungarian Presidency would therefore like to see Croatia’s accession negotiations through to the signing of the treaty, the period of conclusion.
I am aware that the extension of the Schengen area is a controversial issue. The countries concerned here are Romania and Bulgaria, but as someone who knows this region well and also lives in a country bordering it, I know with certainty that these countries are ready, and although I know that the Hungarian Presidency must expect debates, I will always stand up, I will personally always stand up for Bulgaria and Romania being included in the Schengen area as soon as possible, that is, without delay.
Ladies and gentlemen, the programmes of the Hungarian Presidency also include the Danube strategy, as well as the belief that the European Union must continue to take a leading role in the global fight against climate change, and for this reason, we would welcome it if the results of the December 2010 Cancún Summit could enter into the implementation phase, and we could continue with the negotiations to ensure that legally binding decisions are adopted by the end of 2011.
Ladies and gentlemen, since my time spent talking is beginning to border on impoliteness, I will mention only briefly that the topics of the Hungarian Presidency also include the discussion of family policy and the demographic situation, and I would be pleased if Hungary could, without provoking interinstitutional debates, contribute to the European Union forming a clear and firm position on the freedom of religion and taking action against the persecution of Christians, which is an important issue for the coming six months.
Ladies and gentlemen, finally, I would like to point out that I am aware that all of us sitting or standing in this House are politicians. We all have our own points of view, our own principles, our own comrades, and also our own interests. While acknowledging this, I respectfully advise you, whatever opinion you may have about Hungarian internal politics, not to associate your criticisms and actions related to Hungarian domestic politics with the following six months of the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union. If you do associate them, I will, of course, be ready for a fight, but if you do so, it will not be Hungary’s loss, but above all, a loss for the entire community of the European Union. I therefore ask you, for the sake of the European Union and the difficult tasks that lie before us, to make this distinction whenever possible. The last debate was also pulled back to the grounds of reason and rational discourse by Hungary when I agreed with President Barroso that we would welcome EU investigations relating to the criticised media law, that we would engage in ongoing discussions about its observations, and that if any faults could be found and verified, we would, of course, be willing to amend the law. For us, these issues are not a matter of prestige, and are not about flexing our muscles or vanity. On a side note, if anyone wishes to fight for the freedom of the press in Europe, they can always rely on the Hungarian Government, which has had its share of anti-communist struggles.
Thank you very much for the invitation. I extend my respectful greetings to the Members of Parliament, and to President Barroso, as well as the President of the European Parliament, my dear old friend.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are aware that an extremely difficult six months lie before Europe, but I am optimistic and believe that Europe is up to the task. After World War II, Europe managed to build cooperation between the peoples of Europe amidst hatred and ruins. In 1989 and 1990, it managed to reunite Europe, and so I have reason to assume that it will also be capable of responding to the similar historic challenge we are facing now. This means that we will need more, during and after the Hungarian Presidency, than ambitious administration. We must look further than the files massing on our desks, and we must look to an even farther horizon than that of issues which can be solved within six months or one or two years. The Hungarian Presidency is convinced that a community can only be bound together by shared goals and shared values. Shared goals can only be based on shared values. The Hungarian Presidency will carry out its day-to-day work in the spirit of this great, far-reaching European goal, will accord due respect to all of us, and will show the utmost humility to the cause. Thank you for honouring me with your attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to state that it is an honour for me to be speaking here today as the President-in-Office of the Council. For you, of course, this is a six-monthly routine. Every six months, you see a prime minister standing here, presenting the programme for their Presidency. From our point of view, the Hungarians’ point of view, however, this is far more significant than a six-monthly routine. For us, the fact that we can stand here today is an act of historic justice. I would like to remind you that it was Hungary who gave the most human lives and blood for freedom and democracy after World War II, both during the revolution of 1956 and during the subsequent retribution. We were the ones who struck the first blow against the communist regime, who took up arms against the Soviet empire and proved to the world that communist doctrine is not a harmless ideology, but a dangerous threat to western civilisation. We dislodged the first brick in the wall of communism and, through the crack we had opened, the draught swept out the entire communist system.
Ladies and gentlemen, for this reason, I feel that we Hungarians can rightly claim that we have contributed a great deal to Europe becoming unified once again. For Hungarians, it is therefore a historic justice of sorts that the Prime Minister of Hungary may speak here today as the President-in-Office of the Council. I would like to assure you that we are following in the footsteps of the revolutionaries of 1956 and intend to serve the cause of European unity through their ideals and faith.
Ladies and gentlemen, we in Central Europe, including us Hungarians, have always been interested in a unified Europe, and remain so to this day. However, creating and maintaining European unity needs strength too. Twenty years ago, Europe could muster the strength to overcome dividedness and become unified. It had realised that this was an historic moment it had to seize in order to reunite Europe. This strength is recalled in the motto of the Hungarian Presidency: ‘Strong Europe’.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we are facing a challenge of similar proportions to that of twenty years ago, and thus it is perhaps no overstatement to pronounce that the European Union is facing its most challenging period of the past twenty years. Today, we must overcome the storms of a global crisis and find Europe’s place in a global economy that is undergoing complete transformation and rearrangement. I am of the opinion that, in order to be able to stand its ground, Europe must remain unified, and even today, unity needs strength. I am convinced that all Member States of the European Union, including my home country, can only become strong and successful if the European Union itself is strong. If it is strong, it can respond to the challenges of global competitiveness, as well as demographic, environmental, climate and security challenges. The only question is from where Europe can draw such strength. This question will be answered if we ask ourselves another question, namely, what is weakening Europe today? What is impeding the competitiveness of our entire civilisation today? Obviously, it is not other continents threatening us, and it is not a foreign ideology either. Quite the contrary; our true problem is a very practical one. The English language has a very short, simple word to describe it, and that word is debt. Today, the strength of Europe is being marred and eroded by a monumental amount of debt. In the new competition of the post-crisis world, debt will be the greatest impediment and the greatest risk to the western world, including to Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Hungarian Presidency is convinced that there is only one way debt can be combated, and that is called work. We Hungarians are all too aware of this, as the ailments of the Hungarian economy have been caused by the very fact that we have the lowest employment rate throughout Europe, in all the European Union. I am ashamed even to say it out loud, but it is only 55%. And where there is no work, where there are no jobs, there is no money either, and from that follows debt and loans. Well, ladies and gentlemen, our true resource for the future lies in the traditional European mentality, which values work. It was the European mentality of valuing work that has made our civilisation successful. We have a European code of conduct, one of the cornerstones of which has, for centuries, been the principle of prudent economics, meaning that we must not spend more than we are able to produce. Another fundamental European value is that we must not pass on our debts to our children and grandchildren. I am convinced that respect for work includes the idea and the mentality that we can only acquire something if we work for it first. If we can get everything in advance that we could otherwise only have obtained as the fruits of years of work, the very meaning of our work is called into question, and that meaning is increasingly transformed to mean the repayment of our ever-accumulating debt, and changing our whole attitude to work. This is the crisis we are all facing.
Ladies and gentlemen, everyone agrees on the diagnosis of debt. To us, debating European politicians, it is like a disease. Everyone agrees on the diagnosis, but there is vast debate regarding the cure. The disease, however, is a dangerous one, and our time is short. It is my opinion, therefore, that we do not have much time for debate, especially not on whether we should automatically reject certain cures that seem unusual or new for the very reason of their being unusual or new. We need courage and open-mindedness for the governments and parliaments of the individual nation states to be able to overcome their debt crises. However, I am convinced that this is exactly what the citizens of Europe expect us to do. They expect jobs, growth and security, and therefore, ladies and gentlemen, the focus of the Hungarian Presidency, the exact point-by-point transcript of which you will also find in this small book, the focus of this Hungarian Presidency will be on economic issues, and at the top of the priority list of the Hungarian Presidency are the very issues related to the economic and debt crisis.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Hungarian Presidency believes that the direction set out by the Council, that is, the direction of crisis management, is the right way, but further efforts will be required, and we are therefore convinced that the Treaty will need to be amended and that a legal basis must be created for the current temporary crisis management mechanism to be replaced by a permanent stability mechanism from 2013. The Hungarian Presidency will do everything in its power to this end. Furthermore, at the core of the Hungarian Presidency’s thinking are the strengthening of economic policy coordination, the facilitation of economic growth and the promotion of sustainable economic growth for job creation. It is therefore a special goal for our Presidency, and in this I would also like to ask for your cooperation, to create six laws that will facilitate the achievement of this goal, that is, economic policy coordination. I would like to ask for your committed cooperation in this regard. The Hungarian Presidency will be a Parliament-friendly Presidency, and so I ask you to do everything to ensure that these six laws can be adopted as soon as possible in cooperation with us."@en1
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