Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-18-Speech-3-025-000"
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"en.20120118.5.3-025-000"2
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".
Mr President, naturally I also want to extend my official congratulations. I am aware of your great tolerance in relation to speaking time. This tolerance is something you inherited from your predecessor and I would like to thank you for it before I begin.
You also mentioned energy efficiency. This again is an issue close to our hearts. We must become more energy-efficient. This is something we can achieve. There are plenty of good examples, we simply need to follow them. I believe that the most important thing here is that our pride should be restored. Europeans must be able to take pride in Europe. We are confronted with our problems when we travel to the US or China, for example. Things were quite different 10 years ago. I would like things to be different again after the Danish Presidency and would hope that we can once again take pride in Europe.
I would like to close with a short comment – after all I do not wish to stretch the patience of our new President. Before my election, our group had some exemplary debates in the most positive sense. I should also like officially to thank my fellow Members, particularly Catherine Trautmann and Stephen Hughes. We are here today as a cohesive group. We remain a cohesive, able partner for our colleagues in this House and, of course, for the Presidency and for the European Commission. We all have different expectations from Europe: a social Europe, a fair Europe, a green Europe. Above all – as we shall discuss this afternoon – we want a democratic Europe. Democracy must prevail in all of our Member States. We are ready to talk, however. We aim to work together to create this Europe.
With this in mind I would like to congratulate you once again, Mr President, as well as all the Vice-Presidents. I believe we have made some excellent appointments to the House.
Mr President, Prime Minister, President of the Commission, this debate about Europe is being conducted against the backdrop of a difficult situation, Let us be honest: many of those who arguably have more say in determining the fate of Europe than we do in Parliament are not in fact here. I am referring to the financial markets and rating agencies. It is completely unacceptable that we should so often find ourselves the victims of the capricious enforcers of financial market developments and the ratings agencies. They are simply exploiting the weakness of Europe. The weakness of Europe is that to date we have failed to find a joint solution or have only succeeded in finding certain solutions with difficulty. This is something that the rating agencies prove to us on a daily basis: if we do not have joint solutions, then we will find ourselves making it up as we go along, which is no way to manage European policy. That is why I support everything that has already been said, including in relation to the Community method. Prime Minister, you underlined this correctly. As you rightly said, it is important that we should move away from a one-sided policy of austerity. The rating agencies leave us in no doubt here either in their most recent downgrades: a one-sided policy of austerity will not really allow the budgets to be corrected. Should we not be concerned when the
let me emphasise: the
a publication not known for its left-wing views – writes as follows:
‘The conclusion of the fiscal treaty, which is the top priority of EU politics right now, is at best an irrelevant distraction.’ An irrelevant distraction.
This really does give us food for thought. It is, however, the social problems that are the consequence of this irrelevant distraction.
Prime Minister, you said it yourself: let us look at Romania’s current position. What has happened there shows that unsocial austerity policies do not work. As you quite rightly said, it is important that savings should be made. However, this cannot be at the expense of the poorest members of society. That is exactly what is happening in Romania today.
I can only urge everyone to find a way back from the brink and to reinstate the primacy of the social state in Europe. Without a social state we will never get control of budgetary problems. I am not arguing against reforms, which are necessary here and there. I am arguing against the questioning of the fundamental principles of the social state we are witnessing today, however. That is when social unrest occurs, when we have massive restrictions on civil rights and when the police are the dominant power on the streets. Events in Bucharest and in other cities should really give us plenty to think about.
You mentioned the education sector. The story is the same here. We recently put our weight behind the Lisbon Programme: our aim is to be the most competition-oriented and most competitive region, specifically on the basis of our education, training, science and research. What do we see happening today? Resources are being cut. Not only are they not being increased, they are actually being cut. I believe that this is extremely damaging. When you referred to the ‘no future’ generation, you should know that it has already arrived. In your programme you rightly said that we need Europe to be at work. Unfortunately, what we often witness today is a Europe of rising unemployment. Let me make an admission: my group wants to see Europe at work. We fully support your approach. This can only happen – and I would like to make this quite clear – if we link environmental concerns, the workforce and employment policy. We are absolutely against viewing these as opposites.
That is why we shall work with all the stakeholders – including the unions – to ensure that new jobs are created, that the environment is protected and that sustainable development is guaranteed. The Danish Presidency has our unconditional support in this regard."@en1
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