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Mr President of the European Parliament, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the European Council I wish to add my voice to that of the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, to condemn with the utmost energy the murder, which took place yesterday in Bologna, of Professor Marco Biagi, advisor to the Italian Labour Minister, Mr Maroni. On behalf of the European Council, I extend our condolences to the family of Mr Biagi, which we also extend to the Italian authorities and the Italian people.
I would like to point out, among the long list of matters that have been discussed by the honourable Members, that it was thanks to the report on “the implementation of legislation regarding financial services” that a matter as essential as the creation of integrated financial services in the European Union was resolved.
Your decision to press ahead on this subject has not only helped significantly to create competitive financial markets, but has also contributed to the future adoption of a series of measures that may lead to the additional yearly growth of 0.5% of the European Union’s Gross Domestic Product.
I would also like to highlight your resolutions on the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and on sustainable development, and the reports adopted last week regarding the internal market for electricity and gas, and for cross-border trade in electricity.
The substantial contribution of the European Parliament to the Barcelona Council has therefore not been limited to the specific sphere of economic reform, but has instead covered a wide range of different fields.
This House’s contribution will undoubtedly permit the establishment of new guidelines for cooperation between the Council, the Commission, and the European Parliament, in order to strengthen the political and institutional partnership based on a spirit of mutual trust.
This is clearly stressed in the first of the Conclusions of the Barcelona European Council.
Ladies and gentlemen, before I refer to the contents of the discussions and the decisions taken at the Barcelona European Council, I would like to emphasize in particular the participation of the candidate countries in an ordinary working session in the framework of the Council.
This European Council noted with great satisfaction the commitment given by the future Members of the European Union to the Lisbon reform strategy. We can state that the candidate countries have become, even before they join the Union, decisive supporters of the reforms.
The good results of the Barcelona European Council must not let us forget the long road that still lies ahead before we can achieve the ambitious goal of transforming Europe into a society that enjoys full employment at the end of this decade.
That is why, as I present to you the results of the recent European Council, I will place equal stress on what has already been achieved, and on what we still need to achieve in the next eight years.
The fight against terrorism is a fundamental priority in the European Union. Terrorism, as we all know, is a threat to liberty and democracy, and must be fought firmly and steadfastly, with all the means available to us under the Rule of Law. We must, therefore, reaffirm our most decisive determination and confront terrorism serenely and with political courage, out of solidarity with the victims, and in order to uphold our democratic dignity.
In my judgment, the Council broadcast two important messages in Barcelona: its confidence in economic recovery, and the rekindling of the Lisbon “spirit”.
We have agreed that economic recovery has indeed begun, and we trust that this recovery will strengthen as the year progresses. Its solidity and duration are guaranteed if we are able to make progress on our Agenda for reform and create a stable framework that favours growth.
The European Council has stressed the importance of complying with the requirements of the Stability Pact. To that end, all the Member States have given a commitment to achieve or continue to approve budgets that are almost balanced, or have a surplus, by the year 2004, and at the same time, coordinate our economic policies.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can divide the matters addressed by the Barcelona European Council into four large groupings.
The first is the group of decisions that will improve the operation of the Internal Market and will strengthen the integration of the European economic area, the best way we have of creating greater wealth.
In this regard, the Conclusions include the commitment by Member States to reduce levels of public subsidies as a percentage of GDP, and that such subsidies be used more transparently. The European Council also asked the Finance Ministers to evaluate the transparency of our accounting, consultancy and auditing regulations.
We shall never have really efficient regulations unless we can guarantee that they are complied with. Therefore, the Council has decided that before the Spring European Council of 2003, fully 100% of directives whose inclusion in legal codes takes two years must have been transposed.
The European economic area we are aspiring to will only become a reality, if in addition to a transparent and flexible legal framework, we move towards the openness and interconnection of key sectors such as transport, energy, and telecommunications, and towards a financial system that permits a correct allocation of savings, and financing at the lowest possible cost.
It is in this field, perhaps, where the progress made by the European Council has been most relevant.
On the subject of financial markets, and after the agreement between the Commission, the Council, and Parliament, it will be possible to comply with the deadlines to achieve an integrated stock market in 2003, and the complete integration of the financial markets in 2005. To achieve this goal, we have identified seven Directives and one Regulation that must be approved this year.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to appear before this House, as I had the opportunity to announce in January, when I presented the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, to inform you today about the results of the Barcelona European Council.
As regards energy, we have made progress both in opening the markets and in European integration through interconnections.
As you know, it has been decided to open the gas and electricity markets in the year 2004 for all European businesses, which means that approximately 70% of the European energy market will be open to competition. As for the rest of the market, the European Council laid down that a decision is to be taken prior to the Spring European Council of 2003.
These measures to open the energy market are completed, on the other hand, with the goal of an electrical interconnection of at least 10% of installed production capacity of the Member States by the year 2005. Once this goal is achieved, we will no longer be able to talk about fragmented national markets; instead we will have a genuinely open and integrated European electricity market.
As regards transport and telecommunications, we have designed a working programme that will make a substantial contribution to improving the efficiency of the internal market.
Thus, this year we shall approve a review of the Trans-European Transport Networks, which will allow us to remove bottlenecks in such areas as the Baltic Sea, the Alps, and the Pyrenees.
Furthermore, we have agreed to launch the Galileo Programme, which will have not only a clear effect on the development of European transport and communications, but also has a major technological component.
We have also reached agreement on the entry into force of the ‘Single European Sky’ in 2004, which will reduce flying time, cut air travel costs, and make air traffic management more efficient, and, finally, we have agreed to give top priority to developing broadband networks, as the essential element in developing the Information Society.
Ladies and gentlemen, the second grouping of matters I wanted to refer to, regards the Sustainable Development Strategy that we approved at the Gothenburg European Council.
The European Council has agreed on the entry into force of the Directive regarding energy taxation in December 2004, coinciding with the opening of the energy markets.
As the honourable Members know, the European Community and its Member States have decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The Council has requested that all national ratification procedures be concluded by June, prior to the Johannesburg Summit.
Two years ago, at the Lisbon European Council, the Heads of State and Government wondered how Europe could deal with the enormous changes that our societies are currently facing as a result of globalisation and how we could respond to the challenges of a knowledge-based economy.
Finally, and as regards the Monterrey Summit, the fifteen Member States have reached agreement on increasing the European Union’s average Official Development Aid to 0.39% in the year 2006, as an intermediate step towards reaching the commitment of 0.7%.
Ladies and gentlemen, the third grouping of issues addressed at the Barcelona European Council covers employment and social matters.
As the honourable Members know, on the afternoon prior to the European Council, we held a Summit meeting with the Social Partners. The specific result of that Social Summit was the commitment of the social partners to the Lisbon strategy and goals.
Throughout the European Council, there was widespread agreement that the Member States should make an effort to remove the obstacles that make it difficult for Europeans to enter the labour market. These are obstacles involving the taxation and social protection systems, and barriers to the free movement of workers within the Union.
To this end, we have approved the creation of a European Health Card, which will make it easier for citizens to receive medical care when they are away from home, and we have decided to create a European website for job offers.
We have insisted on measures targeted at two very specific population groups: first of all, to encourage access to day care centres for most children, as a measure to reconcile family life and professional life, and secondly, given the low birth rate and the ageing of our population, we will implement measures to increase the average retirement age in Europe by five years, before the end of this decade.
Finally, the Council also focused its attention on matters involving education and technological research, development, and innovation, factors which should be a major part of Europe’s competitive advantage.
The European Council considers that a quality education is one of the essential features of prosperous and open societies. That is why we approved the "Working Programme for 2010" for educational systems. In terms of specific educational elements, the European Council has supported the teaching of at least two Member-State languages, with children starting to learn when still very young, and the widespread teaching of IT and the Internet, starting in secondary school.
In the field of technological research, development, and innovation, I would like to underscore the very important commitment we gave in Barcelona, which you are undoubtedly aware of: to increase investment earmarked for these categories until it reaches 3% of GDP in the year 2010, two-thirds of which will come from the private sector.
Ladies and gentlemen, in Lisbon, it was decided that each spring, the European Council would hold a working session devoted to economic and social matters, to ensure overall coherence and the effective supervision of progress towards the new strategic objective.
We then established a strategic goal for the European Union for the coming decade: to transform Europe into the most competitive and most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better jobs, and greater social cohesion.
In line with this mandate, the Barcelona European Council devoted the bulk of its work to the Lisbon Strategy. Nonetheless, this did not prevent the Council from dealing with other matters, regarding the European Union’s foreign policy, and other institutional matters.
Among the latter, I would like to mention the conversation that was held at the European Council at the initiative of the Irish Prime Minister, regarding the ratification of the Treaty of Nice by the Republic of Ireland.
The European Council gave a warm welcome to the approach proposed by the Irish Prime Minister, has reiterated its desire to support the Irish Government in the ratification process for the Treaty of Nice, and has agreed to raise the matter again in Seville.
The European Council will also be the first to devote a working session to study the progress of the discussions regarding Europe’s future.
A report by the Chairman of the Convention will give us first-hand knowledge of the progress of the reflections at this preparatory forum for the future Intergovernmental Conference.
Finally, and regarding institutional matters, we have complied with the mandates of the Gothenburg and Laeken European Councils. As agreed at the latter European Council, the Council’s Secretary General presented a report, from which we shall have to extract the relevant operational conclusions for reforming the European Council at the Seville meeting.
In the coming weeks, the Presidency and the Council’s General Secretariat will make the required contacts to achieve that goal.
Ladies and gentlemen, a good deal of the discussion on foreign policy matters was devoted to the situation in the Middle East. We also studied the agreement that has been concluded between Serbia and Montenegro, relations between the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance, and the future role of the European Union in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Furthermore, I also wish to highlight the special support of the European Council for the Brussels Process on Gibraltar.
Through the ‘Barcelona Declaration’, which it has adopted, the European Union has once again stated its condemnation of all terrorist attacks, and at the same time pointed out that it is the task of the National Palestinian Authority, as the only legitimate authority, to fight against terrorism. In this regard, the European Council has called for all restrictions on the freedom of movement of the President of the National Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat to be lifted immediately.
Two years later, and after the Barcelona European Council, I am pleased to say that the Lisbon process of social and economic modernisation has not only been consolidated, but has actually been strengthened.
On the other hand, the European Council has stated that Israel must withdraw its forces from the areas that are under the control of the Palestinian Authority, put an end to extra judicial executions, remove its blockades and restrictions, impose a freeze on the building of settlements, and respect international law.
The European Council has reiterated, with this declaration, the Union’s traditional dual objective in the region: the creation of a democratic, viable, and independent Palestinian State, which would put an end to the 1967 occupation, and Israel’s right to live in peace, with secure and recognised borders, guaranteed by the commitment of the international community, and in particular, of the Arab countries.
Only by tightly coordinating the actions of the European Union, the United Nations, the USA, Russia, and other countries in the region, will we be able to contribute effectively to resolving this conflict.
Ladies and gentlemen, European policy towards the Balkans is underpinned by a clear principle: the principle of the inviolability of borders, and respect for the territorial integrity of States. The agreement reached on 14 March by the leaders of Serbia and Montenegro is a good step in that direction, because it ratifies the maintenance of their constitutional unity and their territorial integrity.
This agreement will be a good test of European aspirations for the Union of Serbia and Montenegro, and the European Union will determine its degree of commitment according to its success.
Ladies and gentlemen, the European Council has expressed its readiness to continue supporting the process of stabilising, reconciling, and rebuilding the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Based on the philosophy that has led the European Union to decide to inherit the policing mission in Bosnia Herzegovina starting on the first of January next year, the European Council has expressed the Union’s readiness to accept responsibility for an operation that would take over from the one currently being carried out by the Atlantic Alliance, on the understanding that the permanent cooperation agreements between the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance have come into force.
To that end, the European Council has requested Spain, as holder of the Presidency of the European Union, to pursue, together with the High Representative, the appropriate high-level contacts in order to obtain a positive result that would permit this situation to be resolved.
Ladies and gentlemen, Sub-Saharan Africa was also included in the discussions of the European Council, which expressed, on one hand, its satisfaction the ceasefire announced in Angola, after more than twenty-five years of conflict that have had disastrous consequences for the population, and, on the other hand, condemned the lack of political guarantees provided in the recent elections in Zimbabwe.
The European Union also expressed its concern at the changes in the situation in the Republic of Congo, and at the news of a possible stoning of a woman in Nigeria.
Ladies and gentlemen, the success of the modernisation of our economies depends on the political will to undertake a series of reforms.
The European Council called on the government authorities in that country to fully respect human rights, specifically those of women.
In Monterrey, I will have the opportunity of personally asking the President of Nigeria to listen to the demands from all quarters to prevent this act of stoning to death a human being, a woman, from taking place in that country.
I also want to stress the enormous satisfaction with which the European Council received the decision of the United Kingdom and Spain to relaunch the Brussels Process regarding Gibraltar, established in November 1984, and supported the commitment of both governments to overcome their differences where Gibraltar is concerned, and to achieve a generally accepted agreement before the summer.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr President, there has been a lot of talk lately about the need to bring the process of European integration closer to the citizens. In recent times, the European Union may have given the impression that it was taking care of matters that were apparently too distant from the daily life of its citizens.
I believe that the Barcelona Council has proven that precisely the opposite is true. We have dealt with and have taken decisions that will affect the specific reality and the daily life of the Union’s citizens.
The result has been a very complete and significant agenda for the coming years.
This year, the GALILEO Programme will be launched, the review of the Trans-European Energy and Transport Networks will be approved, the proposals regarding port services, public service contracts, and rules for allocating flight slots will be approved, and seven directives and a financial services regulation, plus an important regulation regarding trans-border electricity flows, will also be approved.
Seville will have to pay attention, among other matters, to the approval of the Sixth R[amp]D Framework Programme, the EU’s common strategy for Johannesburg, the new e-Europe 2005 programme, and the reform of the Council in addition to the discussions regarding enlargement.
I would like to highlight and thank the honourable Members for the great contribution of the European Parliament to the progress of the Lisbon Process and to the good results obtained in Barcelona. This recognition was unanimously expressed to President Cox during his first appearance before the European Council.
In 2003, we will achieve the complete application of the telecommunications package, the launch of the European job search website, and the launch of the European Health Card, as well as the integration of the European Stock Markets.
In 2004, the gas and electricity markets will be opened for all European businesses, the Member States will have a surplus budgetary balance, the directive on taxation of energy products will come into force, and the Single European Sky will be implemented.
In 2005, we shall achieve fully integrated financial markets, 10% of electrical interconnection capacity, and fully developed broadband networks.
And in 2010 we shall be close to 3% of GDP devoted to research, development and innovation, we will have applied the working programme to educational systems, the reconciliation of the labour market and family life, and we will have achieved a gradual increase in the effective European retirement age.
I sincerely believe that the goal of launching the calendar of reforms that we agreed in Lisbon has been substantially and reasonably achieved.
I also believe that today we have ‘more Europe’, and above all, a ‘better Europe’ than we had before we held the Barcelona European Council. And finally, I believe that we have contributed with our agreements to boosting and to speeding up economic recovery.
Those were precisely the major goals that the Spanish Presidency had for the Barcelona Council. The Member States, showing the required ambition and flexibility, have made a decisive contribution to reaching these balanced and positive agreements.
The European Commission has submitted documents that have constituted an excellent working basis for the European Council, and has very actively backed European commitments and progress.
Naturally, the European Parliament, with its extraordinarily important proposals and activities, has played a dynamic role as a full participant in all the fields of the Lisbon Strategy.
I would like, therefore, to end my speech as I began it: with my sincere thanks for your contribution towards achieving results, which I sincerely believe have been worth the effort.
You have accomplished a great deal of work and taken numerous decisions regarding the Lisbon Process.
Thank you very much, Mr President."@en1
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