Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-27-Speech-3-086"
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"en.20020227.6.3-086"2
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"Mr President
the theme of the Spanish Presidency, is an objective that we support in principle. The real question, however, is what Europe? At a time when the European Union is in need of strong economic and social growth and must meet the aspirations of its citizens who are making their voice heard, the Barcelona Summit is being heralded as a decisive step in achieving an accelerated liberalisation of public services that the President-in-Office of the Council earlier referred to as ‘a network industry’. Liberalisation provides the magic answer. We face growing expectations of more ambitious and high-quality public services, however. Can this just be national self-interest? I think that this need is universal. The sizeable disparities that exist between countries in terms of people’s access to these services justify drawing up common European standards that will allow harmonisation to be carried out from above. It is not fewer public services that should be on the agenda, but more public services, which have been improved through development, by being made more democratic and through modernisation. The Union still believes that public services, or services of general interest, are an exception to the rules of competition. They must instead become the heart of European social cohesion, the key to action for a progressive Europe, and become one of its reference points and one of its values. When presented with the progress report on cohesion in the Union, will we continue to destroy with one hand what we are trying to achieve with the other? The Barcelona Summit will not restrict itself to this issue, of course, but the fundamental problems are the same: the economic situation, the fight against terrorism, enlargement, the need for more democratic institutions; that is, so many issues which call for renewed consideration of the meaning of the European Union and its goals, with the first meeting of the Convention opening tomorrow. It is no longer sufficient to include the formal reference to 'a more social Europe', and to the fact that we need to be closer to the people. We need strong signs and practical action. The answers predicted to come out of the summit are not yet moving in the right direction – very much the opposite in fact. A more liberal Europe is unfolding behind the
theme, and this is the credo of the market. The people have other expectations and they will express these expectations forcefully at the demonstrations that will take place on the eve of the Summit. It is crucial that we listen to them."@en1
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