Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-16-Speech-3-143"
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"en.20051116.16.3-143"2
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Mr President, Hampton Court was a Summit lacking any formal conclusions. The promises made at the Summit are in danger of being just as short-lived as the marital commitments contracted by King Henry VIII in the very same palace.
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The Socialist Group in the European Parliament will judge the Presidency on its ability to release a realistic, but more generous, financial perspective. The December Summit must be the Summit of renewed solidarity. A strong commitment from the 25 towards a coordinated reflationary policy, as well as greater national and trans-European infrastructure investment, will enable Europe to restart growth, which is a prerequisite for gaining acceptance of difficult structural reforms. It is growth that will create stability, and not the other way round.
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The UK Presidency is right to call on the 25 to carry out reforms, to invest more in the technologies of the future and to create the conditions for increased employment. Reforms are still needed but, for many Europeans, the word ‘reform’ has a negative connotation and is synonymous with job losses and the scaling down of society.
Mr Straw has just criticised Parliament’s position with regard to the Working Time Directive. I advise the minister to re-read the very first convention adopted by the International Labour Organisation at the time of the League of Nations, a convention that aimed at a 48-hour week without opt-out.
The reforms will be accepted if they allow general welfare to be improved. In order to make this happen, Europe must change its overly pessimistic and despondent position. Viewed from the outside, the Union serves as an example. The President of Chile said so here last month. To read the Commission’s communications, though, Europe will to all intents and purposes have become a hospice by the year 2050. Who among us will be able to check whether these alarmist forecasts have proved accurate in 2050? Yes, Europe will be faced with an ageing population. Yet, Japan and Russia will experience a declining population. What can be said, furthermore, about China, with its one-child policy? What can be said about India and the other countries that are unable to curb the spiralling growth of their populations? Which country will experience the greatest demographic problems by the year 2020, without even daring to talk about 2050?
If there is one area in which Europe could imitate the United States, it is that of immigration policy, which could be more generous. A large part of the United States’ surplus growth in the last decade comes from the contribution of the ten million Latin Americans and the hundreds of thousands of European and Asian scientists. Two weeks ago, the US Senate decided to award 330 000 additional Green Cards each year to highly qualified immigrants.
Europe’s competitiveness is a constant concern. Comparing Europe with others in terms of its hourly competitiveness and particularly its industrial competitiveness, it is clear that we are easily beating the United States in the majority of economic sectors. The Commission’s communication on industrial policy recognises this. The European Union is still the first destination and the first source for international investments. In 2003, the investments of the 15 were four times higher in the ten new countries than in China, which received only 3.8% of European investment. Let us therefore stop being afraid of China. It is only natural that a country with 1.3 billion people should take a greater share in international trade but, in absolute figures, Europe’s share in international trade is increasing, even though some sectors are experiencing difficulties. However, nine tenths of our trade is not done with low-salary countries but with developed countries.
Globalisation provides a great opportunity for reducing poverty in the world. For 50 years, growth in international trade has been faster than growth in gross world product. This demonstrates that foreign trade is not a no-stakes game, but has enabled millions of people to escape poverty while at the same time benefiting consumers in wealthy countries. It is in fact our consumers who, by buying the cheapest products, force our manufacturers to become more competitive.
The Union remains the leading export power in the world, led by Germany, France and Italy. These three countries are nevertheless at a standstill in terms of internal growth. Their citizens are saving record amounts. For their part, the Americans and the British are consuming and getting into dangerous amounts of debt. In order to restart growth, we have to restore confidence among Europeans. There is no alternative to the market, but the market is unable to create the solidarity that is the distinctive sign of the European model. Political will is required in order to create more solidarity among our countries and within our countries.
Policy always boils down to a question of resources and, on this point, I agree with Mr Barroso. It is budgetary resources that Europe sorely lacks. Mr Blair is right to encourage us to invest more in research and universities. This means that the Union’s budget should receive more in the way of resources than the paltry 1% of GDP that a few important countries, beginning with Great Britain, wish to grant."@en1
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