Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-22-Speech-3-058"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050622.13.3-058"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Madam President, for the first time in my life I find myself in the strange position of agreeing at least in some respects with Tony Blair. I believe he is right to call for a fundamental reform of the way the EU is funded, with particular focus on the common agricultural policy. It cannot be right that in a Union of 25 Member States, 42 per cent of our budget goes to the CAP, while less than 4 per cent of our workforce work in agriculture. Nor can it be right that although the CAP cake has to be shared between 25 Member States, one country gets a gigantic 23.4 per cent slice.
How can we tolerate a system that sees the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, sitting in session here in Brussels, demanding quite correctly ever more draconian regulations on the sale and marketing of tobacco products that kill half a million of our citizens every year, while across the corridor the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development is happily voting for an annual subsidy to Europe’s tobacco farmers of more than EUR 1 billion?
Reform, however, is needed across a much wider field than simply the CAP. The people of France and the Netherlands showed us that we have lost touch with our own electors. It was a valuable lesson that we would do well to learn. Our brave words about achieving the goals of the Lisbon Strategy, about facing up to the challenges of globalisation, about increased competitiveness and economic reform are never matched by brave deeds. We have virtually abandoned the Stability and Growth Pact; we have begun a predictable and wholescale retreat from the Services Directive; we voted in this House to end the opt-out on the Working Time Directive, and meanwhile the Commission is preparing to unveil another 900 new directives: more red tape, more bureaucracy, more interference in the lives of our citizens. Do we really believe that this will increase our competitive advantage in the global market? Do we think this will achieve the goals of the Lisbon Strategy? I do not think so. It was a wake-up call from the French and the Dutch. Wake up and smell the coffee!"@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples