Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-160"
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"en.20040113.6.2-160"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner Lamy and Commissioner Fischler, I would like to pick up on two brief comments that the two Commissioners made this morning.
Commissioner Lamy remarked that we were, so to speak, passing from the technical stage to the political stage of the negotiating process, since officials had, in December, come to a sort of agreement as to how negotiations were to be proceeded with, although it is still not yet clear how the political negotiators can actually put that into an active working calendar.
The second comment that I found very interesting was from Commissioner Fischler, who said what we would do, and added that it would not be at any price. That is, of course, an allusion to the European agenda and to the issue of how our thinking can have any influence in the context of the WTO negotiations.
What, though – if I may make so bold as to ask the two Commissioners – does that actually mean in concrete terms? Next year is an election year and a difficult one; you two will still be here in its first half, then things will get critical, and then – so to speak – you will no longer be there. We do not know who will be. The situation is similar on the American side – Bob Zoellick will not be coming back again either – and nor is the geostrategic situation straightforward; look at the way things are shaping up in India, look at China or at Brazil. So I ask you both: what do you now expect to happen, and how are you preparing yourselves for it? What is in your calendars for January, February, and March, and when do you think the political stage will begin?
Now for my second question. Where is the pain barrier? Where do we really think it is? What is the ‘not at any price’ issue? The Singapore issues? I think not. Agriculture? Perhaps, but I have seen the draft working document on the market organisation for sugar. Will you, Commissioner, produce a final draft by the end of your term of office? You see, where is our pain barrier? If we know a bit more about that, I believe we might perhaps be able to be a bit more proactive in steering the process that you all and we all want. In relation to that, please allow me to put a final question to the two Commissioners: what do you now, really, think of Bob Zoellick’s latest venture? I heard brief indications that you take a positive view of it, but could you go into more detail about just how positive?"@en1
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