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"Mr President, President of the European Council, honourable Members, the President of the European Council has given us a presentation on all the decisions made at last week’s meeting. I would like to share my reading of these with you, and to talk to you especially about the next stages. Honourable Members, the new governance structures must now be put into action to address the economic situation. The truth is that we are still in a difficult climate. The ball is now more in the courts of the Member States, which must finalise their national reform programmes and their stability, or convergence, programmes The Commission will be waiting to receive concrete, ambitious proposals from each Member State for moving forward together towards the major Europe 2020 Strategy objectives: more jobs, more investment in education, training, research and innovation and a bolder approach to combating poverty and social exclusion. We are also waiting for them to present the measures they will be taking to correct the continuing macroeconomic imbalances and to improve competitiveness and growth for jobs. As soon as we receive these documents, we will be able to prepare our draft opinions and recommendations for each country, so that they can be adopted before the June European Council, which will mark the end of the very first European semester. I would like to emphasise that we all share a joint responsibility and it is important that everyone takes full ownership of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Europe 2020 Strategy remains the fundamental framework for Europe’s reforms for growth and employment. Paragraph 6 of the European Council Conclusions could be mentioned in this respect. It makes the following very clear point: ‘In implementing these policies, and in order to ensure wide ownership, close cooperation will be maintained with the European Parliament and other EU institutions and advisory bodies (ESC, CoR), with the full involvement of national parliaments, social partners, regions and other stakeholders’. I want to stress this point because as you know, one of the most frequent criticisms of the Lisbon Strategy was precisely a lack of ownership of the European economy reform programme. I hope that this time we will have benefited from the lessons we can learn from this process and will genuinely work hard on growth for employment at both European and national levels. As regards economic governance reform, it is now Parliament’s task to progress towards final approval of the six proposals in the legislative package, and I hope that we will reach a bold result as quickly as possible. This is vital if the whole governance system is to be in place. I think, therefore, that we have many reasons to be pleased with the outcomes of the last European Council, but also many reasons to keep on working hard from now on, since the economic climate is still difficult and unpredictable, especially in terms of the social aspects, about which we are all very concerned. Over the next few weeks, the Commission will also be presenting its proposals on the Single Market Act. I am delighted that the Council devoted so much time to discussing the future of the single market and that it emphasised the vital role played by the single market in stimulating growth and employment and promoting competitiveness, by highlighting among other things the importance of easing the regulatory burden on SMEs in particular. We want to free up the single market’s potential for growth. I would also like to draw attention at this point to the fact that the consolidation of public finances is not an end in itself, but a means to the end of stimulating fair, sustainable growth and generating jobs. While we are on the subject of fair growth, it is important to emphasise that the European Council also gave its verdict on the possibility of levying a tax on international financial transactions. I confirmed the Commission’s intention to put forward some proposals concerning taxation of the financial sector. Indeed, we believe that everyone should contribute towards dealing with the crisis. I think it is fair to say that some very important structural decisions were made for the sake of greater financial stability in the euro area and greater economic coordination. This is a real turning point for European economic governance, especially if we look back at the road we have come down to get to this point. Honourable Members, as you know, the Council also discussed the situation in the southern Mediterranean and in Libya in particular. The President of the Council has given us a very detailed report. I would simply like to mention that I had a meeting with the Tunisian Prime Minister yesterday. I reiterated our support for the democratic revolution and our readiness to help the Tunisian people in their quest for freedom, justice and social progress. I also mentioned in this context the matter of migration, which Tunisia and the EU must tackle jointly in a constructive spirit and one of genuine partnership, since it is a partnership for democracy and shared prosperity that we have proposed and that has been very well received by the European Council. There is another subject that the European Council dealt with, namely the crisis in Japan, in particular the nuclear situation. I also had a fairly substantial telephone conversation yesterday with the Japanese Prime Minister, who thanked the European Union for its actions. I reiterated our solidarity and told him that we would continue to stand alongside Japan. We also discussed the nuclear question. Prime Minister Kan informed me about the situation in Japan and the latest safety developments and signalled his readiness to cooperate with us in relation to the work to be done on nuclear safety in Europe and the rest of the world. There is obviously mounting public anxiety over the nuclear issue. We must address these anxieties and guarantee maximum nuclear safety. We must also act with complete transparency. ‘Stress tests’ will therefore be carried out in nuclear power plants in Europe and the results will be made public. The Council has asked the Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group to decide on the scope and practical details of these tests, which will be carried out by independent national authorities. The Commission will also examine the regulatory framework on safety in nuclear power plants and by the end of the year will suggest any improvements that may prove to be necessary. Mr President, honourable Members, we must not disappoint the hopes that have been pinned on our capacity to act together for Europe’s common good. This is what the Commission seeks to do on a daily basis, knowing that we can count on Parliament’s support, and we will continue to do it and to perform our new duties to the full. At last we have laid proper, solid foundations for the economic component of our economic and monetary union. I think it will now have a more stable basis. We now have a framework which will enable us to respond together to any crises that may occur. And last but not least, in assessing the results of this Council, we should not overlook the fact that the framework is in keeping with the provisions of the Treaty and adheres to a Community approach. As we all know, that was not a foregone conclusion. The Commission was at the forefront of the joint response to the economic crisis and the vision for Europe in 2020. It received vital support from this Parliament, and once again I would like to thank you for this. The stance that Parliament and the Commission have taken together to defend the Community approach have been acknowledged and have played an important part in obtaining these results. Our new economic architecture is now largely in place, therefore. However in itself, it is not a guarantee: political leaders will now need to make some important decisions in order to live up to it. Under this new framework, we will need to be determined in implementing without further delay the necessary public finance consolidation and structural reform priorities for growth that this European Council confirmed, based on the Commission’s annual growth survey. I am confident that our determination over the coming weeks and months will be as strong as, if not stronger than, the determination we have shown until now in establishing the various components of our joint response to the crisis in a cohesive and coordinated way: the European semester, the Euro Plus Pact, the new strengthened economic governance framework and the steps we have taken in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility to maintain the euro area’s financial stability. I do not mind telling you that the Commission would have liked to have gone further in several areas of economic governance, especially in relation to the euro area’s new financial stability mechanism. For example, we would have liked greater flexibility. Nonetheless, I think we can say that we have succeeded in securing a mechanism that is anchored in the Treaty, with a strong role for the Commission and monitoring by this Parliament. The result we have obtained is significant and the approval for the amendment to the Treaty, which was so widely supported by this House, contributed to this."@en1
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