Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-21-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20040721.2.3-048"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you, Mr Balkenende, in what you had to say about the economy, focussed on the Lisbon process, and my colleagues Mr van den Berg and Mr Désir will set out our group’s position on this at greater length. One thing, though, is quite clear; we want the Lisbon process to be a social one. Economic renewal, a fitter Europe – which is indispensable – Europe as a global player not only in economic terms, a Europe that wants to be a success and will be one – only by maintaining internal social cohesion can these things be achieved. If we want that, we need social stability. Social cohesion is an indispensable part of the Lisbon process. If you concentrate your efforts on that during your presidency of the Council, then we European Socialists will be right alongside you.
There is much else I could mention that is not acceptable, but if we want to make sustainable policies, we need Kyoto; if we want to make peace more secure throughout the world, we need the International Criminal Court, without special rights of immunity. If we want to seize a new opportunity in the aftermath of the failure of Cancún, then we need cooperation with the United States of America, just as we do when it comes to Kyoto and the International Criminal Court. Perhaps the American electorate will give us a happy event in November. That would be desirable, but, Mr Balkenende, what I expect of the Prime Minister of a country that has always stood up for these values is that the European Union should insist upon them in its dealings with our main partner on earth, and hence, also on the ratification of Kyoto and on fair trade. If you take that to heart, then we Social Democrats will be right behind your Presidency.
There is a second observation I want to make about enlargement. It has to be clear to us that there are two stages to enlargement. Bulgaria and Romania are now knocking on the EU’s door, and that is something we need to debate. Explicit promises have been made, and we have to talk about them, and if we are to talk in terms of fairness, let us talk about fairness towards both these countries, towards Bulgaria and Romania. We in the Socialist Group insist that there must be no gradations here. There also needs to be fairness in our dealings with Turkey. I know that you, Mr Balkenende, are well-versed in modern German history. Let me remind Mr Poettering of the former chairman of the CSU, Franz-Josef Strauss, and of his favourite dictum, ‘Pacta sunt servanda’, which he used in Vilshofen, and later in Passau. Treaties are to be kept to! You cannot, for forty years, make promises to a country like Turkey and, when it comes to the crunch, say that you did not mean it like that. If the European Union wants international credibility, it has to keep to its promises. What that means is that, if the criteria have been met, negotiations have to start. Let me repeat that: if the criteria have been met
the two belong together. And Islam is not the problem, on the contrary. If we were to succeed in bringing together in reconciliation a society of Muslims – which is what Turkish society is – with a society to whose values you have referred, such as freedom, solidarity, fraternity, civilian control of the armed forces, respect for human rights, the abolition of the death penalty, the freedom of the justice system; if we were to succeed in demonstrating that Islam and the Western value-system were not mutually exclusive, but mutually compatible, it would prove the Bin Ladens of this world wrong. The security dividend that could thereby accrue to Europe is not something we can risk without serious thought. I do not know whether Turkey will become a Member State of the EU, but to deny it the chance to do so would be a calamity.
Mr Balkenende, I listened with great attention when you said you wanted to concentrate your efforts on combating terrorism and also on a new policy on drugs. We very much welcome that, but fighting terrorism also involves the EU institutions established for that purpose being capable of doing their job. That is why I will tell you, in your capacity as President-in-Office of the Council rather than as Prime Minister of the Netherlands – for as that you can do nothing about it – that Europol, the institution set up to combat terrorism in Europe, has been without a director for months because two Member States cannot agree among themselves. That is, quite simply, a scandal. We expect your presidency of the Council to see it brought to an end.
While we are on the subject of counter-terrorism, let me say that we are all willing to join in a coalition against terrorism. What we are not willing to do is to allow, as part of counter-terrorism, the abandonment of fundamental values for which we stand and to which you have referred, such as freedom, justice, and fairness in our dealings with one another. I find it unacceptable that the European Union’s High Representative has not yet had anything to say about Guantanamo; that is something we cannot tolerate. If Europe is to discuss values with the USA as an equal, then we have to tell them that this is not acceptable."@en1
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