Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-05-Speech-4-016"
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"en.20010705.1.4-016"2
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"Madam President, in recent weeks, surveys of public opinion have been carried out, and it is with great surprise that I have to say that one result that has emerged is that the majority of Italians share the concerns of the G8 protesters. This certainly does not mean that the majority of Italians support the violence we have witnessed on other occasions and which we fear will be displayed this time as well. Of course, I am not among those who advocate violence, nor are most Italians, but this does mean that, in Italy – and, I would argue, in many other countries in the world – there is a real, deep-rooted concern at a type of world globalisation which is not what a large part of the population wished to see. It would be a great mistake to see this as a question of right- or left-wing politics. This is a question which concerns basic problems faced by man. Indeed, it is an issue of great relevance precisely to those such as myself who have liberal tendencies, for one of our greatest concerns is that globalisation of the economy might come to pass without there being any rules to govern the process, which might well have worse consequences.
This brings great opportunities for Europe, but also great responsibility. Great opportunities because, in actual fact, trends and ideas are currently developing in Europe which could provide at least a partial response to the problems of globalisation. In the field of human rights, with regard to protection of the environment, with regard to minorities and the establishment of the citizens, with regard to diversity and the acceptance of differences, Europe is spontaneously largely in agreement. This is shown by the almost unanimous position adopted on the Kyoto Protocol, by the battle to abolish the death penalty and to uphold respect for human rights and by the cohesion policy – as yet maybe not sufficient but still important – that we are developing. At the same time, this highlights our responsibility as well, for these results are not political results now; as yet we do not have a Europe which upholds these ideals before the world, just individual countries. Indeed, the image which will emerge from the Genoa Summit is a picture in which Europe does not appear, a picture, that is, which is in danger of being dominated by the one great superpower. That is not the fault of the superpower, mind you: it is due precisely to the absence of what could have been a continent which takes a different line but is willing to do something about the concerns of such a large part of the human race.
Well then, there are two things we must do: one is to explore this idea, this debate in detail. I believe that there are some extremely important things we could do ourselves: for example, the idea of going to the forthcoming summit on the environment with a united voice, with one single voice, the voice of Europe; the possibility of developing the idea of internal cohesion. There is also a problem enlarging funds: a Europe which dedicated more of its resources to a policy – which has already had partial success – of improving certain economically deprived areas, would have great influence. However, in addition to this, we need comprehensive political action. If the voices remain the voices of individual countries, as they have been thus far, they will carry even less weight at the world summit. If, however, we succeed in making progress on the road to European integration and we succeed in ensuring that it is not just some European countries which go to important world summits but Europe, acting with one voice, we will have contributed to resolving not just the problems of Europe but the problems of the world as well.
The Italian government is making progress in seeking dialogue with all the social players. However, at this point, something further is necessary: there needs to be great drive from the European Union towards integrating the other countries so that these ideas, these hopes, which we are rightly striving to fulfil, are expressed by an entity which is powerful enough to be influential. That entity cannot be any individual State; Europe must act as a whole."@en1
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