Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-07-04-Speech-3-017-000"
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"en.20120704.3.3-017-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Christofias, for me and my group, welcoming you here in your role as the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union represents a very special moment. We are very pleased that for the first time in the history of the European Union a member of our political family is leading the EU. You are taking over the presidency at a time when the European Union is faced with huge challenges. We need to determine whether the European Union will actually have a future or whether it will turn out to be footnote in history, which I would regard as a historic defeat.
After the meetings which we had with you, with the representatives of your government and with the leaders of the groups and parties in your country, I know that you have made very thorough preparations for the presidency and that you are aware of the scope of the task. However, you have made it clear today that you specifically want to focus the attention of those in power on the living conditions of the people. I can tell you after everything I have heard in recent years that this is the first time that a President-in-Office of the European Union has said that he will do precisely that. I have not heard this sort of tone in official speeches before. I have not heard anyone say that this is all about the people, about the ones who are not responsible for the crisis, but have the heaviest burdens to bear.
It will be difficult to put this into practice. However, I believe that you will have achieved a great deal, and I am certain that you will do this, if you can use your presidency to give encouragement to the people, to support their rights and to help to ensure that the Council and the European institutions are aware of what you are doing.
We are constantly talking about the euro and its stability, about how important the euro is for the functioning of the European Union and for the euro area. However, it is an instrument. It is based on political conditions that have been clearly defined. It can never be the objective of the European Union to accept that people in the EU will go hungry, that health care systems will collapse or that local authorities will stop working in order for the euro to continue functioning. Something has gone wrong here. That is not what we see as the objective of the European Union. I very much support your call for social cohesion and solidarity between the individual Member States, but also between all the very different groups of people. The European Union cannot allow itself to be used as an instrument or a speaker for a particular small section of the population or present itself in that way.
I would like to make one final point to emphasise, of course, that all of the priorities you have mentioned are very important to us and that we will support the points which take us in the direction you have just defined. Please help to ensure that people are no longer afraid. Fear is the worst guide for democracies. I think that many of the decisions made in recent weeks and months, in particular during the elections in Greece and the referendum in Ireland, were characterised by fear. If those in power in the European Union are contributing to the fact that people are afraid to make free decisions, this does not bode well for the future of the European Union. I wish you every success in what you have to do."@en1
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