Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-14-Speech-2-011"
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"en.20041214.5.2-011"2
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"Today I do not intend to present a detailed account of our work in progress before listening to you; I would, however, like to outline the main elements of our approach.
To connect the European Union with its citizens we must earn the confidence of Europeans every day by providing answers to their concerns. Their main worries concern the economic and employment situation. There is no freedom, no future, if you are not able to earn a decent living and to secure the future of your children. We need a strong, stable and dynamic economy to generate more jobs and more opportunity. The main question is: how? We do not need another library of comprehensive studies to answer that question. The work has already been done. The Lisbon strategy is both a diagnostic and a list of tasks to perform. As I said in this House in July and in November, I intend to make it a top priority of the action of the Commission. A knowledge-based economy will be at the core of such a strategy.
For the time being it may look too much like a catalogue of worthy aims, but the Commission wants to reshape it and transform it into a road map for prosperity, identifying clear objectives and a demanding calendar. This must be done with the Member States, who share the responsibility for implementation, and in a constructive dialogue with the social partners.
Economic growth is not an end in itself. Europeans are concerned about the sustainability of our social model – our solidarity mechanisms, health and pension systems. They care about the quality of life and their environment. The only way to secure these goods is to generate the necessary resources to that end, and therefore to secure economic growth. Otherwise this will remain an affordable luxury for only some of our citizens.
Europeans are also concerned about their personal security. Crime is not limited to the boundaries of our Member States. Terrorism is the ugly face of globalisation. We need safer streets and a safer continent. The Commission will actively promote initiatives to provide our citizens with a better level of personal security and therefore of personal freedom. What are our means? We must back our ambition with the necessary financial resources at European and national level. We will not be a true Union without a vigorous cohesion policy. We must complete the internal market on the basis of clear and simple regulations. We need better regulation and have to be ready to roll back unnecessary red tape.
We can also do this by supporting our strategic objectives with a new way of working inspired by the Constitution. All this must amount to a positive agenda for reform. But all this will not be achieved in a vacuum. The Union is not an isolated entity. It is not a fortress. A number of states want to join our Union. We should prepare ourselves to welcome them in the same way as they make efforts to meet our demanding standards.
We also have neighbours and we need to better structure our relationship with them, to tackle common problems and promote stability. We have partners in the entire world with whom we are united by strong cultural and economic ties. Europe cannot be selfish. We have a duty of solidarity with the poorest regions of the world, particularly Africa. Our values of democracy, freedom and respect for human rights imposes on us the responsibility of promoting them worldwide. Only by strengthening our values will we be able to defend our interests in the world."@en1
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