Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-18-Speech-3-024-000"
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"en.20120118.5.3-024-000"2
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"Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, chairing the Council of Ministers of the Union at this time is not an easy task, but I am sure that, after your training as an MEP, Prime Minister, you are fully equipped for this task.
I wish you all the best for the next six months.
Madam President, I endorse the four priorities under which you have so classically positioned your six months at the head of the Council, namely, responsibility, European dynamism, green Europe and security. I welcome these ambitions, I share them, but as everyone here knows, a Presidency never chooses its agenda, and it is the political reality of the day that will serve as your guide.
That is why I call upon your Presidency not to be content with being a technical Presidency; yours must be a Presidency that is, above all, political, given the wide range of issues facing you and facing us. That is also why I call upon you and your Presidency to work closely with this Parliament, which you know well but which some members of your government would like to be faster and more efficient in its decision making. You know how things work in Parliament, however.
My group and I are, of course, in favour of fast, effective legislative action, and, in recent times, the markets have either taught us or forced us to work more quickly than before. However, I am also in favour of the proper functioning of democracy and transparency.
I am sure, Madam President, that your Presidency will be able to find its place alongside Parliament, the Commission and the European Council. Once again, I urge and I call upon you to engage in politics, because the times in which we live demand that European actors do not simply oil the wheels and build bridges, but also that they be committed and audible actors.
The first week of your Presidency will be dominated by negotiations on the fiscal treaty, on which opinions differ greatly within this House, both with regard to its timeliness and its methods. My group wants this Presidency to be fully involved in this negotiation and especially wants it to defend two major principles to its partners in the Council: European integration in fiscal and economic budgetary matters, of course, but also in politics and the Community method.
Since this is the time for making wishes, I would add that the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) would be very grateful to you if you could set the first discussions on the financial perspective on the right track. This is not an easy dossier, but when things are not easy, we must have courage. Of course, the reforms we are trying to put in place on the recovery of public finances and growth will be your top priority, but the capital debate which, because of the way things are, Europe will have to hold with regard to its finances for the 2014-2020 period, should not be neglected either. I have always said that a euro used here, in Europe, with the Commission, was a whole euro. A euro used in a country recording a deficit is already no more than 30 or 40 cents towards growth.
Here, a euro is a whole euro. If the Danish Presidency manages to hold these debates on good foundations, that is, without taboos, especially as regards own resources, if it is able to show the Member States, as Parliament says, that money is much better spent at European level on large-scale horizontal projects than if it is divided up, you will have earned all of our respect after your Presidency.
Madam President, in view of the efficiency and courage demonstrated during presidencies held by countries which are, let us say, not as large as others, I believe that the time has come for presidencies to be ambitious, as Poland has just been, and I believe that, although your country has opted out of several common policies, such as monetary policy, you can, and indeed you must be bold in your proposals. Help Parliament to convince the Member States that the solution to our problems will come from greater convergence and greater Europeanism and that, this way, the solution will quickly become much more tangible for our fellow citizens."@en1
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