Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-034"

PredicateValue (sorted: default)
rdf:type
dcterms:Date
dcterms:Is Part Of
dcterms:Language
lpv:document identification number
"en.20050413.2.3-034"2
lpv:hasSubsequent
lpv:speaker
lpv:spokenAs
lpv:translated text
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at its latest meeting the European Council recognised that there is very little to show for the Lisbon Strategy at the half-way stage. It has actually been a total failure. I would remind the House that the Union has not achieved the target of 3% economic growth it set itself, and the gap between per capita GDP in the EU and in the US has actually grown, when it was supposed to disappear. There has only been a slight increase in expenditure in the key area of research and development, and employment growth in the areas singled out by the Lisbon Strategy has fallen far short of expectations. There are still significant obstacles to the free movement of goods and services within the Union. A condition for that sustainable and balanced growth that is now simply wishful thinking would be liberalisation of the services market. I use the words ‘would be’ advisedly, as freedom of economic activity remains theoretical, despite long-standing provisions in the Treaty to that effect. The liberalisation process has been met with strong opposition on the part of officials and trade associations in the countries of the old Union. Its opponents argue that the quality of the services provided by enterprises in the new countries is lower, and that the latter are engaging in social dumping. At the same time, the opponents of liberalisation are discriminating against their own fellow citizens by forcing them to pay unduly high prices for the services they require. I firmly believe that another key catalyst for economic growth would be to turn cohesion policy into something more than simply a propaganda slogan. If the Lisbon Strategy is to be saved, the Council, the Commission and above all, EU officials must remember the true meaning of the principle of solidarity and how a free market actually operates."@en1

Named graphs describing this resource:

1http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/English.ttl.gz
2http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/Events_and_structure.ttl.gz
3http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/spokenAs.ttl.gz

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph