Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-09-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20050309.3.3-013"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start this very, very, important debate with very warm thanks to both the rapporteurs, Mr Lehne and Mr Désir, for the work they have done. While extending thanks to the chairman of the steering committee, Mr Daul, and our group’s coordinator, Mrs Thyssen, whose work has been outstanding, I also would like to thank those, not all of whom I can name, have played their part in enabling us – it is to be hoped – to get a broad majority in a good cause when we vote at midday.
The Commission – whose President and Vice-President we welcome here today – has set the right priorities for its five-year term of office: growth and employment. Our group is very definitely behind them in this, and we are also glad to see the Commission represented here not only by such important members, but also in such numbers.
What is at stake is the European Union’s ability to compete. Let us just look at a few figures and compare ourselves with our main competitors, our partners and friends in the United States. If we take the standard in the fifteen-Member State EU as 100, the enlargement to 25 Member States reduced our productivity per worker to 93, while work productivity in the USA stands at 121. That shows the competitive advantage that the United States of America enjoy.
In itself, the fact that our people are living longer is very much cause for rejoicing, but it is one of the great challenges we face, in that the question arises of how we make use of older people’s experience. In the Europe of 25, the employment rate stands at 40%, while it is 59.9% in the United States. Ought we not to be giving thought to how to enhance older people’s potential and experience, and improve their work opportunities? If we turn to research and development, we see that the European Union’s 25 Member States spend 1.9% of GNP on it, as against the USA’s 2.8%. It is clear from that what a massive effort we have to make.
Our group very much welcomes the substance of two amendments that speak of the need for us to strengthen the spirit of entrepreneurship. Vice-President Verheugen was right to stress the role of small and medium-sized enterprises, the need for us to create a culture of risk-taking, the need for us to encourage personal initiative and personal responsibility, and, above all, for economic legislation that is unbureaucratic and that businesses, particularly small and medium-sized ones, can comprehend, with a simple and fair tax system and the predictability that we need in economic policy. What that means is that we have to make it possible for those who work in business to have confidence in those who hold political office.
It is crucial that we should develop a growth-oriented macro-economic environment, that we should have a stable currency and dynamic development in our economy and labour market, and that we should reduce state debt. I cannot therefore do other than encourage all the actors to reform the Stability Pact in such a way that – assuming they succeed in this – the Pact ends up being at the heart of our shared efforts. What we need is reform, flexibility, the acceptance of responsibility, less red tape, and if we succeed in all these things, that will also facilitate solidarity – in the shape of a very rational and far-sighted social policy – with those people in our community, in our Member States, who are in need of it.
What we demand of the Member States is that they should make their contribution to a Europe that is capable of development and that fosters growth, a Europe with a growing economy. That is not, however, an end in itself; rather, the object is the creation of jobs, enabling people to get involved and make use of their options in Europe. Such is now our common task."@en1
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