Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-20-Speech-3-025"
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"en.20020320.5.3-025"2
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"Mr President, the Spring Councils usually provide the setting for a debate between the Heads of State and Government on establishing the broad guidelines that will map out the path we should follow, and in the Lisbon European Council the bases were effectively established to create a Union that is close to its citizens and which is underpinned by an increasingly open and dynamic economy.
We must now prove our commitment to the process of modernisation and economic liberalisation, and in this regard the PPE-DE Group can be counted on to provide unwavering support and I welcome the fact that others have accepted the ideas that will guarantee progress for our Community, albeit at the expense of saying the opposite here of what they say in their home countries.
I shall conclude, Mr President, with a comment on what took place outside the Council
the civic pride of the people of Barcelona and the professionalism of the security forces matched the peaceful attitude of the vast majority of the thousands of demonstrators whose rights were respected and guaranteed. This does not mean, of course, that we agree with their demands, because, Mr President, the Heads of State and Government who met in the Council have complete democratic legitimacy.
This objective, which was announced at that time; to make Europe an area of full employment, and to make its economy the most competitive in the world by 2010, was endorsed in Barcelona. Furthermore, clear and practical decisions were taken last weekend which will, in practice, provide a definitive boost to the strategy of promoting greater economic integration, greater social cohesion and greater growth in the economy and in employment throughout the Union.
The existence of an increasingly interdependent global economic framework and the introduction of the euro in January were making it necessary to adopt the structural reforms that Parliament and, of course, my group have called for in several resolutions in the last two years. We therefore welcome the broad range of decisions taken by the Council, as can be seen from the diversity of issues that have already been raised at this stage of the debate by the various Parliamentary groups, whose observations have been entirely constructive.
Amongst the agreements concluded in Barcelona, I should like to mention the three following:
Firstly, the delegates were able to open the process of liberalising the energy sector by establishing the freedom for the business sector to choose their suppliers by the year 2004. It is important to emphasise, as the European Commission has done, that this measure is strengthened by the commitment to have, by 2005, a minimum level of electrical interconnections of 10% of its installed production capacity. Some might now say that we should have gone further, as my group had hoped, but the fact is that the obstacles to liberalisation have been removed, something which, in all honesty, few people expected could happen in Barcelona. This is also something that will certainly create the necessary dynamics that should – we feel quite sure of this – enable us to complete the process earlier than seems possible at the moment.
Secondly, the Council has agreed to give the final green light to work starting on the Galileo satellite navigation project, with the creation of a joint undertaking and by freeing up the corresponding budgetary resources.
Lastly, I should like to emphasise the social dimension of this Summit, before which an unprecedented meeting with union leaders and businessmen took place, which must be followed up, thereby giving a commitment to boosting social dialogue.
To sum up, in little more than two months after the introduction of the euro, we are being given a clear opportunity to boost the economic and social reform that the European internal market needs.
It must be said that Barcelona was proof of the smooth running of the Community method and of interinstitutional dialogue and the chairman of the Socialist Group should be reminded that we have not even reached the halfway point of the Spanish Presidency."@en1
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