Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-25-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20040225.5.3-054"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Solbes Mira, Commissioner Reding, I too am tired of always hearing the refrain or mantra of the Lisbon objectives. One reason is because we repeat them in an attempt to convince ourselves that we will succeed in doing things in Europe that we are not capable of.
We are discussing public budgets, we are discussing the role that European public administration and public administrations in individual States can play in promoting the economies of research and innovation. We are doing this at a time when the European Union Financial Perspective provides for a budget in which agricultural expenditure will still take up between 40% and 50% of the resources. Does the Commission think that spending on agriculture will achieve the Lisbon objectives? If it does not have the courage to discuss this, in terms of the European Union’s budget, then it will be very difficult to make use of a lever as important as European expenditure – to benefit technological innovation and scientific research.
While discussing the Stability and Growth Pact we have seen major governments – in countries that are essential for the European Union and even more so for the eurozone – hold discussions to arrive at a deficit equal to 4 or 5% of the public budget. I ask myself if it would not be possible for countries such as France and Germany – where public spending is equal to or greater than 50% of GDP – to find the necessary funds in these extremely substantial resources to make infrastructure investments and to develop scientific research and training, in particular, at university level.
Another major European country provides us with an example. Unlike Mr Abitbol, I do not believe that the United Kingdom’s better economic performance results from the fact that the British have kept the pound and have not adopted the euro. The UK provides an important example in which a committee – not the Blair government but a government committee – indicates that 80 000 civil service jobs might be cut, in order to make savings of EUR 20 billion – in other words 1.5% of the United Kingdom’s GDP – which would be earmarked for schools, health and security. Resources need to be found from within public budgets, and we need to have the courage to take such costly political decisions.
Two further points are the European Union’s prospects and economic growth. We have read – for the moment just in newspapers – the text drawn up by Commissioner Lamy’s committee of experts – this is not yet about what Commissioner Lamy says – which calls for international trade to be linked to national values in Europe. This means putting the European Union on the road towards protectionism. Is this how we want to grow economically?
Finally, Mr President, Commissioner Solbes Mira, Commissioner Reding, I would like to focus on the issue of immigration. Just a month ago the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Anna, came here to urge Europe to adopt a more open policy, first and foremost in the interest of Europe itself and its economy. How does Europe respond? It responds by closing the borders of the Europe of Fifteen to workers from the enlarged Europe. Workers from the ten countries that will join the European Union will be second-class workers; we will have workers who are from the Community but who are nevertheless illegal. This is, for example, the response as regards immigration. Even from this point of view, rather than accepting the challenge of enlargement, Europe closes in. The Europe that closes in is not moving towards Lisbon but towards economic growth that is increasingly insignificant compared to the growth enjoyed by the United States and now also by Japan. Europe is, however, choosing its own destiny."@en1
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