Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-03-Speech-3-043"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031203.6.3-043"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, could I issue you with a special invitation? If, over the Christmas holidays, you are in the wonderful city of Bolton, please come and join me in a visit to my local pub because you will surprised to discover that most people there are not talking about qualified majority voting, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Intergovernmental Conference. They are talking about other issues.
I mention that point not to denigrate the discussions on the Constitution, which are important but, rather, to emphasise that the endless institutional debate that we have does not bring us closer to the electorate because it does not address the issues which voters regard as very important. Since I became a Member in 1989 we seem to have had endless institutional debate. We must stop that institutional debate, because it is vital for the political legitimacy of the EU that we come to an agreement in this IGC quickly but, more importantly, that we come to an agreement that will stick.
I agree with Mr Hänsch that we cannot carry on endlessly with one IGC dealing with the leftovers of another IGC. When we get an agreement that sticks, we can then start to focus properly on the sorts of issues which concern the citizens of a Europe of 25 Member States. We need to start making practical progress.
Let us not take it for granted that enlargement is on course to happen smoothly. We must make sure that candidate countries fulfil the requirements set out by the Commission in its latest annual report. We must ensure that the accession of these countries to the European Economic Area
something people forget about - goes very smoothly, because that has not been the case until now. We must not lose sight of Romania and Bulgaria, or their objective of joining in 2007. We must continue our work on Turkey and, as Mr Swoboda says, show greater solidarity with that country, particularly at this time.
We must also look at other issues concerning our citizens: more and better jobs. We must revitalise the Lisbon process and ensure that we have an active social policy that gets people into work. As Wim Kok's report has shown, there are too many people excluded from the labour market and we are building a wall between those who have a job and those who do not have a job. We must do much more with respect to that. In particular, Member States must stop dragging their feet. It is the Member States who are dragging their feet on Lisbon and on the European arrest warrant. Crime is important to our citizens and we need more Member States to actually ratify that.
Member States are also largely responsible for the fact that the European Court of Auditors, in its a yearly reports, tells us that it cannot trace all the accounts because of the way Member States spend the money. We need to demand much more of Member States.
On security policy, I welcome the progress being made but let us ensure that we focus on capability rather than institutional structures because we will only be judged by how capable we are.
If I could ask for a Christmas present
given that I still believe in Father Christmas
I should like to see IGC conclusions which are agreed upon, which are upheld and which leave no leftovers. I would like us to focus on delivery for our citizens, because that is what the European Union will be judged on."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples