Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-06-Speech-3-011-000"
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"en.20110706.2.3-011-000"2
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"Mr President, 22 June marked the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. Poland had already been destroyed at that point. The Europe that emerged from this criminal war, in which Nazi Germany destroyed Poland, the Europe in which Stalinism enslaved the country for 40 years and more, was a different Europe from the Europe we have today. The speech that Mr Tusk has just given here illustrated that an awareness of the value of Europe underpins the Polish Presidency. For that alone, we are grateful to you Prime Minister.
We still maintain the ideal of a single Europe, a Europe of solidarity, that creates welfare for everyone through transnational solutions and that safeguards peace in Europe and, through Europe, in the world at large, rather than trying to conquer it, at least not while we have such Presidents-in-Office of the Council.
Europe is suffering from a common mind-set among governments, whatever their political hue, that is characterised by despair and a lack of inspiration, the delusion that you can use national measures to solve problems in this global village, where an incident in one corner of the world can become the subject of local debate here. Schengen, the debate we are holding now, is an eloquent example of just that. This mismatch between reality and political rhetoric is what Europe is suffering from. That is a huge risk for our project.
Poland, on the other hand, is taking a different approach. As Poland explained here this morning through its Prime Minister as President-in-Office of the Council, ‘the best protection for our national interests is the European formation, the European convoy’. That is quite a different concept. Europe is suffering from governments which decide everything – either by taking part actively or sitting in silence – and then go home and, when the first negative comment appears in a newspaper, blame the European institutions for what they themselves decided. Poland, on the other hand, stands for a different concept.
This morning, we heard a President-in-Office of the Council present the concept that his Presidency wants: partnership between the national governments and the European institutions; after all, cooperation between national politics and the European institutions, rather than an adversarial approach, is Europe’s recipe for success. This is the Head of Government of a country that was also a member of the Warsaw Pact. This is the Head of Government of a country that was also repressed by the Soviet Union. However, he is also the Prime Minister of a country who, unlike his predecessor in the position of President-in-Office of the Council, does not wade in by comparing Brussels with Moscow; on the contrary, he says that Europe is not part of the crisis; it is an instrument for overcoming our problems.
When Jean-Claude Juncker commented on the last financial perspective, he said that he was ashamed, because the financial perspective was a call for national self-interest, not a European team effort. That was the last financial perspective. Now, we have governments in the process of raising national self-interest to a political credo. The Polish Government has a different concept. We heard about disciplined spending, yes; but we also heard about intelligent investment policy in Europe to boost growth because, without growth, there will be no jobs, and with no jobs, there will be no social security.
Solidarity in Europe, solidarity between the strong and the weak within countries, and between the strong and weak countries, that is the concept of the Polish Presidency, not playing national budgets off against the European budgets. We have – I think one could say – heard a great speech. The Polish national anthem contains the beautiful line that Poland is not yet lost. Based on that, may I say to you, Prime Minister
Europe is not yet lost while we are yet alive!"@en1
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