Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-14-Speech-2-142"
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"en.20030114.5.2-142"2
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"Mr President, I have heard it said that there is nothing left for the Greek Presidency, other than providing the after-sales service for Copenhagen. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Greek Presidency will have a key role in the birth of a reformed and enlarged European Union. But to ensure a smooth birth a good midwife is essential and I am pleased to see that the Greek Presidency seems well prepared to play that role.
With regard to the reform of the Union, the Convention is due to report in Thessaloniki. As every good midwife knows, it is important to keep pushy relatives out of the delivery room and while the discussions in the Elysée Palace tonight will be important, they must not dictate the outcome of that Convention.
It is also important to ensure that the baby is not strangled at birth by Member States fearful of an ambitious constitutional Treaty. I would therefore take issue with the President-in-Office and say we should not have a lengthy interim period. We need a short IGC, which should be a tidying-up exercise to ratify quickly the outcome of the Convention quickly.
2003 will be the year when politicians must sell enlargement to the voters. Nine out of ten of the new countries will have referenda between March and September this year. We need to put far more effort into making the case for a 'yes' vote in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe than we have put recently into convincing citizens in our current Union that Europe is a 'good thing'. Liberal Democrats in this House and beyond are committed to campaigning in the new countries to make sure that we get a 'yes' vote and we call on others to join us.
We hope in particular that the Greek Presidency can use its privileged relationship with many on the island of Cyprus to ensure that a united island joins our Union. Time is short, but recent developments, both on the island and in Ankara, have created a window of opportunity and I hope that you, Mr President-in-Office, will work with all parties to craft a compromise. I welcome the generous aspirations that you have expressed today in that regard.
If the European Union is to succeed, however, for its current citizens and its new ones, it will need reform. As we approach the third anniversary of the ten-year Lisbon strategy, it has to be said that progress to date on productivity, growth, employment, investment, research and development has been disappointing. The continued economic slow-down is making structural reform more, not less, urgent and governments should not be deflected from the goals they set themselves. It will be important for the presidency to reaffirm commitment to a reformed Stability Pact, to focus on the underlying deficit, to give the Commission the power to issue early warnings to countries in danger. It will also need to stick to the timetable for the Financial Services Action Plan, which has already shown dangerous slippage, and to secure approval of the takeover bids directive.
If you want someone to help you along this path, why not give the European Parliament more of a role in the follow-up to the decisions of the Spring Councils, in holding the Council accountable for the decisions that are taken? That is something we would do very well.
Europe is of course though far more than a common market and your presidency recognises this. The Amsterdam and Nice Treaties have created a Community of values. I welcome the emphasis in your presidency's statement on the values of a generous, outward-looking and civilised society. You speak in your document of a planned legal immigration policy. Exposed as you are on Europe's southern and eastern flanks, you see the importance of understanding a little more and condemning a little less. The fact is that, as long as we keep out their produce and deprive them of the hope of economic development, we will take the people of the developing countries to the south and the east. We need many of them to deal with the problems of an ageing population here, or the brain drain problems the Commission President referred to. Let us work to close the back door to illegal immigration more effectively by offering legal opportunities to those wishing to settle here and integrating them properly in our society.
I had a great deal to say about Iraq and the Middle East peace process as well, but my time is running short. I would, however, say that the Greeks are well acquainted with what we in the rest of Europe understand by the word 'marathon'. You take the baton from the last runner, Denmark, and try and cover as much ground as possible as quickly as possible, before handing it over to the next presidency. We wish you good speed in the marathon that you are running on our behalf."@en1
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