Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-14-Speech-2-149"
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"en.20030114.5.2-149"2
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"Mr President, my thanks go to Greece for an excellent presentation and for highlighting some delicate matters. Recently, actually since the autumn, it has been mainly the issues of enlargement and the Convention that have been the focus of attention at EU level. In its presentation Greece mentioned some well-chosen issues it intends to address over the next six months. Unfortunately, however, we cannot cure all the ills of the world even though we might want to.
We should also be as good as our word with regard to improving European competitiveness, something that was endorsed at Lisbon. Things have, however, gone the opposite way. The United States of America has rushed off even further into the distance. There is barely any eye contact anymore. If there is, the Americans come whistling past one lap of the circuit ahead of us whatever the event, to use a sports image.
In view of this I would ask Greece what it really intends to do during its presidency to put its own house in order also, to fulfil the Lisbon objectives? Does it intend to make the economic reforms insisted on by the Commission, and which Mr Prodi also mentioned here at the start, and, if so, working to what sort of timetable? If Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany keep to their commitments we can really talk about a Lisbon strategy and improvements in our competitiveness, but if that should not be the case, we might as well wipe our backsides with the Lisbon Declaration and say goodbye to European competitiveness."@en1
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