Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-16-Speech-3-171"
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"en.20051116.16.3-171"2
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"Mr President, the British are famous for their nerves of steel, their reserve, their calmness, their peculiar sense of humour and also for their emotional self-restraint. I was therefore very surprised to hear Lord Bach say yesterday that if a compromise on the REACH regulation is not adopted before the year is out, he will consider it both a personal failure and a failure on the part of the British Presidency.
I should like to take this opportunity today to ask Mr Alexander whether we will hear that he shares these sentiments. If the 2007-2013 Financial Perspective is not adopted before the year is out, will you too consider this to be a personal failure, on your part and on the part of Prime Minister Blair?
Tony Blair gave a fine speech to the House in Brussels in June, and his analysis of the crisis in which Europe finds itself was worthy of publication. Unfortunately, during the following months and subsequent ministerial speeches we have heard nothing but increasingly pale repetitions of the Prime Minister’s proposals. My impression is that the British have lost the will to fight for the realisation of their vision of the European Union. Instead, they have decided to muddle through this six-month Presidency as best they can. Unfortunately, they too have been infected with the European disease of impotence and paralysis.
At the same time, however, I have to admit that after the questions and speeches of Members of this House had left him with no other option, Mr Straw finally started to talk about business like a normal human being, which is how a politician should talk. Europe can only be built by means of effective action and decisions that will be forever writ large in the history of our continent. The way in which the Presidency is putting off the debate on the Financial Perspective until the last minute, as well as preparing the budget proposals behind closed doors and talking in Orwellian newspeak about the problems of civilisation faced by the world instead of holding a hard-hitting debate on the business at hand, amounts either to time-wasting or to a deliberate attempt to pass the hot potato of the budget on to Vienna in December.
The most important task we face today is the Financial Perspective. Estimates suggest that if this Perspective is not adopted, the new Member States will receive EUR 10 billion for development in 2007. If it is adopted, however, this figure will rise to around EUR 22 billion, with an additional EUR 3.5 billion for Romania and Bulgaria. These countries would therefore lose out on around 60% of the money they could potentially receive. I would ask you to take this Financial Perspective seriously, and to embark on effective measures to ensure that it is adopted in December."@en1
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