Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-005"
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Mr President of the European Parliament, Mr President of the Commission, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, today’s debate on the Spring Summit is an extremely important debate. In the current political climate, the European Union needs to ensure that it makes good progress on a number of crucial issues at this summit. This will prove that we know how to bolster confidence, security and optimism in Europe. Competitiveness, employment, social cohesion and sustainable development are the tools we shall use to achieve these objectives. We want the March Council to send out a clear signal that, even in these difficult times, Europe is taking decisions which generate momentum and prospects. Having said which, I should like to explain the Greek Presidency’s thoughts and plans and hear President Prodi’s and the European Parliament’s views. A strategy this broad will be sure of success if it draws on creativity and support from all sides, the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament and, of course, the social forces.
I am delighted to be able to confirm that the two action plans are progressing satisfactorily and we are expecting a progress report at the 2003 Spring Summit. The pension funds directive, the investment services directive and the bank/investment firm capital directive are important issues for the presidency and we shall also be discussing the Commission proposal on corporate governance. The Greek Presidency endorses the conclusions of the Winter report and agrees that company law needs to be updated, especially on corporate governance.
As far as takeover bids are concerned, we hope to make substantial progress on the proposal submitted by the European Commission. Still on the subject of boosting competitiveness, our efforts will be geared towards interlinking networks and full operational liberalisation of the energy and transport markets. On the subject of energy, the presidency will make every effort to reach an agreement on the full operational liberalisation of the market, taking account of public interest undertakings, security of supply and protection for sensitive areas and groups.
In the transport sector, our priorities are to extend the trans-European networks to the new Member States, adopt the second package of legislative proposals on the railways and road safety. As far as services of general economic interest are concerned, we think this is a very interesting proposal, especially now that sectors of general importance to society as a whole are being privatised and are competing, and we look forward to receiving the Commission’s proposals here.
In the field of competitiveness, we are keen to support entrepreneurship, because it is vital not just to economic development, but to social cohesion, employment and regional development. We aim to make it easier to create the right business environment. The Competitiveness Council will meet before the Spring Summit in March in order to do the groundwork on items relating to entrepreneurship and competitiveness. The emphasis will be on promoting innovative ways to speed up the application of the European small business charter and evaluate the policies applied and on an in-depth discussion of the Green Paper on entrepreneurship.
Research, technology, knowledge and education are proving to be key factors in competitiveness, development and quality of life nowadays. Investment in research and technology could be encouraged by adopting a Community patent and developing research into cutting edge technologies, which could also include defence research. Along the same lines, we hope to guarantee an information society for all, by using open standards, making networks and services interoperable and ensuring the
Europe programme has adequate funding. More and more Union policies are taking account of the need to develop education systems which respond to the potential of the new economy. Using new communication and information technologies and lifelong learning as basic springboards for upgrading the education system, by which I mean typical, atypical and vocational training, training for special groups and teacher training, are an important priority in this sector.
Another item which I should like to add to this list and which is currently the subject of debate, is the re-use of public records. As I am sure you know, the Council has yet to reach political agreement here. Nonetheless, we are sure that we shall make satisfactory progress on this item during the first half of the year if we keep up our efforts and that we shall be able to put this item to bed with Parliament’s help. We are keen to receive Parliament’s opinion on this.
Another major issue is employment and social cohesion. The reform of the European Employment Strategy is a very important issue for the presidency. The Spring Summit will address the overall orientation of this strategy, the final objective being to adopt the strategy at the Thessalonika Summit. We believe that the social pillar of the Lisbon process is every bit as important as economic reform. Our priority is to streamline the Employment Strategy. However, we also need to step up our efforts to create more and better jobs, to reinforce and streamline active employment policies and to encourage entrepreneurship. This is even more important in the current macroeconomic climate. The equal participation of women in the labour market, increasing the percentage of women in work, striking a balance between flexibility and job security, integrating immigrants and reducing regional disparities in employment and unemployment, especially through action in isolated regions, are all on our agenda.
As far as modernising economic policy and employment policies is concerned, we support the need for autonomy, coordination and complementarity between the two processes, with employment issues being dealt with mainly by the Employment and Social Affairs Council and economic policy by ECOFIN. The presidency believes this will make policies more coherent and efficient and increase employment. We shall also be working to ensure the Social Summit held in the run-up to the Spring Summit is a success and to improve the standard of its work and its output. We are being called on to oil the wheels of the Union’s legislative machine by pushing agreements through on a series of issues, including working conditions for temporary workers, extending Regulation No 1408/1971 to third country nationals, setting up the Tripartite Social Summit and the European health insurance card.
In the third area, sustainable development, we shall be focusing on revising the Union’s strategy on sustainable development at the Spring Summit in 2003 on the basis of the outcome of the World Summit in Johannesburg. This is our chance to show the world the Union’s role in protecting the environment and adopt policies that combine development with environmental protection and quality of life. The Spring Summit will give us a chance to set out our basic strategic approach to balanced sustainable development and set specific targets that will act as an incentive to further progress. We shall be working to achieve the objective of sustainable development by revising the European Union’s sustainable development strategy, by ensuring economic development does not plunder natural resources and cause ecological damage and by applying the outcomes of the Johannesburg Summit. Priority will be given to the ten-year framework programmes for sustainable production and consumption, that is, clean technologies, raw material and energy savings, initiatives on and the procedure for mainstreaming the environmental dimension in international and Community policies and actions, implementing the action plan to remove obstacles to the development of environmental technologies and developing a global strategy on chemicals. I should like to point out, again on the subject of sustainable development, that priority will be given in the shipping sector to examining safety at sea, mainly in connection with preventing maritime pollution following the disaster involving the
where we shall be endeavouring to keep to the timetable for examining this legislative proposal. We shall also be examining the proposal for a directive on access to port services at second reading.
Mr President of the European Parliament, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to close my statement by assuring you that we shall be making every effort during the Greek Presidency both to confirm that we have confidence in and intend to abide by the Lisbon strategy and to streamline the process, especially in the current economic climate, with enlargement imminent and ten new Member States waiting to join. My statement has covered the basic points and actions relating to Lisbon process issues and the spring Council. The presidency is looking forward to fruitful dialogue with Parliament and we hope that, by working constructively with the European Parliament and the Commission, we shall help create a more productive, more competitive and more socially just Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen, a great deal of progress has been made since 2000 on numerous issues which come under the Lisbon strategy. Just recently, we came to a good agreement on the liberalisation of the energy market, the single European sky, the competition rules in need of reform, the tax package and financial services. However, there are still delays in the application and implementation of a whole series of issues.
It is true that we are in the middle of a serious recession. The Spring Summit in 2003 will be held in a new political and economic climate, beset by serious problems but offering more opportunities than in the past.
The recession in numerous OECD countries, increasing international tension and the resultant general feeling of insecurity are all taking their toll on the Lisbon strategy and there has been a delay in achieving our mid-term objectives. The outcome of the Spring Summit will have a serious impact on what we do next to achieve the Lisbon objectives and we need to make sure Europe can withstand medium-term uncertainties.
The Greek Presidency understands perfectly that it is more important than ever before to keep the Lisbon strategy on the front burner. I can assure you that the Greek Presidency’s individual objectives are geared towards maintaining what is admittedly a difficult balance and highlighting the integrated, mutually supportive, coordinated nature of the reforms encompassed by the Lisbon process. The European Union post Lisbon is not just a union with economic policies; it is a union endeavouring to promote policies on employment, social issues and the quality of the development process itself. This balance will not come about automatically of its own volition. The Greek Presidency wants to broaden the economy by adding the social factor and sustainable development.
Ladies and gentlemen, with poor economic growth over recent years, intense concern about economic prospects, fears of a new rise in unemployment, new environmental challenges and widespread pessimism on the international markets, fed by concerns generated by business problems and diminishing business expectations, we urgently need to push these issues forward. Within these limits, the presidency has defined a series of crucial issues of primary importance which relate to our three basic objectives: economic reform and competitiveness, employment and social cohesion and sustainable development.
As far as economic reform and competitiveness are concerned, there are six points I wish to comment on: managing macroeconomic policy, opening up financial services, energy and transport markets, encouraging entrepreneurship, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, the importance of research, technology and information society policy, the importance of education as a key factor in investment in knowledge and human resources and, finally, linking various networks. I should like to comment briefly on each of these points:
Safeguarding macroeconomic stability and adhering to the Stability and Growth Pact are important means to our end. With regard to taxation of savings, as I am sure you already know, the recent Economic and Financial Affairs Council reached an important agreement on automatic exchanges of information after fourteen years of discussion. Again in the tax sector, we are still trying to reach political agreement on an energy tax. Macroeconomic management is one of our main concerns in the present climate and ECOFIN is keeping a very close watch on developments, with the Commission’s help, so that it can take the necessary decisions.
The presidency also believes we need to unify the financial markets if we are to improve the Union’s single market. This will boost investors’ confidence in the markets and foster economic development, employment and prosperity, which is why we are keen to ensure the two relevant action plans, the financial services action plan and the risk capital action plan, progress satisfactorily."@en1
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