Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-05-Speech-2-017-000"
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"en.20110705.5.2-017-000"2
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"Mr President, Prime Minister, President of the Commission, my group is of the view that the Hungarian Presidency has achieved some truly important successes. This was a difficult presidency, with the financial crisis, Fukushima and the developments in North Africa. We have your government to thank, Mr Orbán – particularly your foreign minister, Mr Martonyi, who is sitting alongside you, and also your Minister of State for EU Affairs, Mrs Győri – for the fact that really outstanding work has been done here. This is particularly true as regards economic policy. What has been achieved in terms of stabilising the euro has undoubtedly been a great success, although it remains an important task. The adoption of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and also the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) – these are great and important achievements. The implementation of the first European Semester, the coordination of Member States’ budgetary policy – this is progress
when it comes to preventing the indebtedness that has been commonplace in the past.
There is one outstanding matter, which you yourself have mentioned: the so-called ‘six pack’ – the economic governance package. Our group will insist on this and we will continue to insist that we strengthen the Stability and Growth Pact, and consequently we will also stand firm on the issue of the reversed qualified majority. I believe it was right to postpone the decision for the time being and to continue the negotiations. Joseph Daul has said here that we need a convincing economic policy package if we are to have a stable euro. We feel that the Stability and Growth Pact is key to this. It needs teeth, and that is why the negotiations should continue.
There are a few other policy areas in which you were very successful during your Presidency. Croatia has been mentioned, and the conclusion of the accession negotiations. I can only endorse what Mr Swoboda has already said: this is a most significant step forward for the whole region. After three years, the directive on consumer rights has at last been finalised. Progress has been made on the energy efficiency plan. One further very important matter from our point of view, and also in the view of Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises, is the European patent, which President Barroso has just mentioned. A whole raft of really noteworthy successes achieved under your Presidency.
Prime Minister, when we met in Budapest we said to you that we would assess your Presidency fairly, but that naturally we would also look at what is going on in your country. From the point of view of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, we regret that your Presidency has been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the media law. We would have liked to have seen a different media law. Although the Commission brought about some amendments, to our way of thinking these were not in the key areas. We would also like to have seen the Constitution being drawn up by the process proposed by the Venice Commission.
I believe that this watchfulness of each Member State – including my own, by the way – by the rest of Europe must continue if the European Union is to make progress. Freedom dies little by little – whether it is freedom of the press or freedom to travel. In a quarter of an hour customs officers will take up their places on the German-Danish and Danish-Swedish borders in order to reintroduce border controls. That is a development against which we might have wished the Presidency to have spoken out more strongly. This whole area – freedom to travel, asylum policy, revision of the Dublin II Regulation, the attack on the freedom to travel within the Schengen area – is where we would have liked to have seen greater commitment from your Presidency.
Overall your Presidency has been a successful one, but we would have preferred it not to have been overshadowed by the criticisms that I have mentioned."@en1
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