Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-023"
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"en.19991214.3.2-023"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to report to this House today that the Commission is highly satisfied with the overall results of the Helsinki European Council.
So I shall personally be following the tax package negotiations closely over the next six months, giving Commissioner Bolkestein, who has worked extremely positively over the last few months, every assistance possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is much to be done in the wake of the European Council. We must work at it together, and for the first time, we really have a
wide area to work on together. We shall do this with determination, in good faith and in a true spirit of cooperation, and I would like to thank you for this spirit that has developed between us.
Let me begin by congratulating you, Madam President, on the way you opened proceedings at this Summit. Your contribution was very well received and paved the way for a really constructive debate, especially on Parliament’s involvement in the Intergovernmental Conference.
There were three main topics of discussion at Helsinki: enlargement, defence and the IGC. Let me take these in order.
First, enlargement. I am very pleased that the European Council decided to open accession negotiations next year with the six candidate countries in the second wave. This means we will be preparing to welcome twelve new Member States, and we should be ready to conclude negotiations with the first of them by the end of 2002, provided we have successfully reformed our institutions and completed our revision of the Treaties. A successful IGC is indeed an essential precondition to any enlargement. I am also delighted that the Heads of State and Government took the historic step of recognising Turkey as an official candidate country. We want to help Turkey along the road towards full compliance with the Copenhagen criteria, and now that the European Council has given its green light, we shall be able to devise specific ways of doing so under a pre-accession strategy for Turkey.
Second, defence. I am very glad that the European Council has decided on the broad outlines of the new European Security and Defence Policy, particularly by developing the Union’s military and non-military rapid response capabilities. A rapid intervention force of 50 to 60 000 troops will enable us to deal effectively with brushfires in our own back yard, especially on occasions when our NATO allies do not wish to become involved. The need for security in Europe and for a wider European area of peace is amply illustrated by the situation in Chechnya, on which the European Council has adopted a detailed declaration. Among the specific measures recommended is the proposal that TACIS funds be redirected towards humanitarian efforts, and the Commission will be taking timely action to implement this proposal. It is a good example of an area in which the Commission has direct responsibility and can make a specific contribution to resolving the Chechnya crisis.
Chechnya was also the main topic of concern at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in November. The political declaration signed at that Summit makes it clear that a political solution to the Chechnya dispute is essential, and some OSCE principles were reasserted despite very strong pressure, particularly from the Russian Federation, to water them down. These include the OSCE’s right to adopt positions on conflicts that undermine commitments entered into by all participating States on human rights and the rule of law. At the Istanbul Summit, I reaffirmed the European Union’s firm commitment to rebuilding south-east Europe and integrating it into the European mainstream. I also emphasised the substantial assistance we are already giving, and will continue to give, to the region. Istanbul also saw the signing of the revised Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, the adoption of the Vienna Document 1999 and the signing of the Charter for European Security. This sets out the common challenges and foundations for European security in the new millennium and proposes new instruments to enable the OSCE to tackle these challenges. President Ahtasaari and I signed the Charter on behalf of the European Union, and I am glad to say it enshrines the Platform for Cooperative Security proposed by the European Union.
Let me now return to Helsinki and to the third main item of discussion, the IGC. Very wisely, in my judgement, the European Council decided to launch this Conference as early as February next year, as we had repeatedly requested, with open minds regarding the agenda. We are all just beginning to realise what it will mean to have a Europe of more than 25 Member States, and it would certainly have been imprudent to close the agenda at this early stage. Fortunately, good sense has prevailed and the IGC will be tackling not only the issues left over from Amsterdam but also the corollaries of those issues – such as the redistribution of seats in this House after enlargement. It will also consider any other relevant institutional issues arising from enlargement, and the Commission has already made a few suggestions as to what these issues might be. I expect Parliament and the Commission to return to these matters in our formal opinions on the Conference, to be delivered next January. None of the items on the IGC’s agenda is simple, and others may have to be added as the Conference proceeds. It is therefore time for us to roll up our sleeves and get down to work, and I think that this work will need a lot of attention from us all.
However
I am pleased to say that the Commission has been successful in its efforts to ensure that the European Parliament can play its proper part in the IGC: Parliament will have full observer status in the Group of Personal Representatives.
In closing, let me say how disappointed I am that Helsinki delivered no progress on the European tax package – beyond an agreement to work on it for a further six months. It was not one of the main items but it was nevertheless an important item, and above all, it has a high profile in European political journalism. This is indeed a feeble outcome after two whole years of intensive effort, and I want to stress how important it is that we reach a firm conclusion on the package soon. It is important that our citizens realise what this package is really for. It is not simply – although this is important – about preventing damaging tax competition or ensuring the smooth operation of the internal market – which, I repeat are important but which to most people must seem remote, bureaucratic concepts. It is, in fact, about something extremely relevant to everyday life in Europe: creating jobs. If there is indeed complete evasion of any form of capital tax, as occurred in the last decade, all taxes concerning labour will increase. And I do not consider this to be the best policy to fight unemployment.
There is another, much simpler fact: tax evasion is unfair and it is detrimental to employment and we must fight it with all the means at our disposal. If we cannot find effective ways of taxing return on capital, the entire tax burden will have to be borne by labour, and that will simply make the biggest problem we have even worse."@en1
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