Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-076"
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"en.20040914.7.2-076"2
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"Mr President, Madam Vice-President, thank you for the report you presented today. I want to discuss just a few points in it. The first is certainly the preparation for the next stages of enlargement and of the Neighbourhood Policy, for it is not perhaps apparent to everyone that enlargement is not over, and you rightly referred to the historic significance of the enlargement project. We have heard from Commissioner Verheugen that, even if discussions with them, and ratification, are completed, there are grave concerns as to whether Romania and Bulgaria will develop in the way they should over the two years remaining before their accession. This means that we need to monitor very closely the actual processes involved and the actual implementation. That would, of course, be particularly true in the case of Turkey, and also of Croatia, if we want to make rapid progress with Croatia, which – or so I believe – is what not only the Commission, but also the Council and this Parliament definitely want to do. It will then also be necessary to monitor what goes on with appropriate care, although the same can also be said of the Neighbourhood Policy as a whole. I am thinking, for example, of the Balkans, where we may well have established peace, but it is very precarious, and where we still have much to do to secure it, along with economic and social development.
You drew our attention to security policy, and I see it as, in principle, the right approach, that the Commission is already – as I hope the incoming Commission will do even more intensively and to a wider extent – joining with our neighbours in attempting to shape immigration and security policy and to avoid in future the unwelcome developments that we have seen over recent weeks, months, and indeed years, in particular in the Mediterranean, where many have tried to reach Europe, only to die in the attempt.
The aspects mentioned so far, however, also need financial support. I do not believe that enlargement and the Neighbourhood Policy are exclusively financial in character, but without appropriate financial measures we will not get anywhere with them.
A second point, one that Mr Schulz has already mentioned, is the issue of competition, the social Europe and sustainable development. As I see it, the social Europe and sustainable development need even more support, without detracting from the importance of competition, but, Madam Vice-President, I am sure you are familiar with the report produced mainly on behalf of Commissioners Almunia and Bolkestein, on the evaluation of the performance of network industries providing services of general interest
It is a very interesting report; it shows that our competition policy is achieving very real successes in some areas for the benefit of consumers, for that is what lower prices and better supply are all about. This report, though – it comes from within the Commission and is very competition-oriented – shows that a number of problems remain to be resolved, for example in transport.
Let me take two examples from an area that just happens to be of great interest to you, that of transport; you may well have worked on them yourself. Many consumers think that, in connection with transport and, in particular, local passenger transport, a number of problems are arising, or remaining unresolved, that cannot be solved through competition alone; they believe that they also call for investment. Today, Madam Vice-President, you yourself referred to the trans-European networks, where we took a common approach; I am also grateful for the Commission’s cooperation. On the other hand, there is also a need for more funding to enable these investments to be made, and consumers have – as this report shows – very long wish-lists in the field of energy, with aspirations towards alternative or renewable energies, which are proving very difficult to promote in some countries. Some countries have done more than was envisaged in the objectives, but others have done too little. Here, too, there is a need for more investment if this sustainable development is to be promoted.
Let me just say something about Budget policy, with which I believe we will be very occupied over the coming months. What matters is not that we stipulate in an abstract way that we need 1% or 1.14% of the national product; rather, we need to ask where the deficits are, by which I mean deficits in the sense of investments that need to be increased. It will be necessary to invest more in the trans-European networks, to which you referred, and, of course, also in education and training. This was something I discussed with the Dutch Presidency in the relevant committee. Despite the Lisbon process, budgeting problems mean ever more cutbacks in training and continuing education at universities, but Europe will get no nearer to the goals of the Lisbon process if we fail to invest more in education and training and if we cannot reverse the brain drain, which continues to flow towards the USA. We must bring the best brains back to Europe or find a way of keeping them here; that is the investment I see as being particularly important in our own countries, but also, of course, in the countries adjoining us, so that we might invest more in education and training in those of the countries adjoining us that are drawing closer to Europe.
Let me make a final point on information activities, in which – as the elections showed – we still need to invest more. While I welcome the new Commissioner’s plans for this area, which will have a Commissioner to handle it, there is a need for improvement in the financial and staff resources for the Commission’s and Parliament’s Representations in the various countries, for information activities have to be highly decentralised. They will have to be handled differently in the UK to how they are handled in Austria, and the way they are carried out in France will have to be different from the way they are carried out in Poland, because the problems they address are local ones. I hope that there will be stronger support for them.
Let me conclude, Madam Vice-President, with something I have said before. We have clashed on various occasions, and we have had quite a few arguments, some of them more serious, but I would like, both for myself personally and for my group, to thank you most warmly for your work. I think it has always ended up bearing good fruit, and whether these be Spanish oranges or something else is irrelevant; what matters is success. Thank you for your cooperation."@en1
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