Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-26-Speech-3-048"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050126.6.3-048"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, my mother is in the habit of reminding me that he who focuses upon everything has, in fact, no focus. I therefore hope that the Commission dares to prioritise and to choose a focus in the form, obviously, of what is most important, namely growth. There is no magic about creating growth. In actual fact, everyone knows what needs to be done and why Europe is slipping behind, but there are few who dare talk about it.
What, in reality, is needed is not more power or money for the EU, but political courage. Courage is needed to dare to stand up and implement a number of radical reforms designed to obtain the competitiveness we need and to get away from over-regulation and over-taxation of the economy.
An important tool for increased growth is free trade. The EU should be the European power, and the world’s strongest power, fighting specifically for free world trade. The EU project is based upon free trade and upon creating peace, prosperity and freedom. It can be of a very great deal of help in other parts of the world too.
Unfortunately, the EU often does the opposite and instead sets up further barriers to trade. Poor and vulnerable countries are robbed of prosperity and opportunities through customs duties. The immorality of this became additionally clear when, in December, the EU increased the duties on perfumes and spices from countries such as Thailand and Sri Lanka. Those countries that have been affected by the tsunami disaster need trade in order to pursue their own development, and they definitely do not need new customs duties. The fact that Europe too loses out due to what is an immoral policy is becoming clearer than ever now that Thailand is talking about refusing to buy the prestige European Airbus as a consequence of the trade policy that imposes duties on fishermen specifically in Thailand.
I should therefore like to call upon the Commission to do everything it can to stand up for free trade and to try to go down in history as the European Commission that was most friendly to free trade."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples