Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-15-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20060315.3.3-048"2
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"Mr President, Mr Winkler, Mr Barroso, Mr Verheugen, I am an ecologist but I am not going to talk to you about energy. I have colleagues, whom you know and who are very skilled in that area.
I should like to talk to you about the Commission’s role in the Lisbon Strategy. On many occasions, you have rightly emphasised the fact that, in order for this strategy to succeed, broad popular support is required, as is the proper involvement of all the relevant players, including the national parliaments. With this in mind, the Commission needs, I believe, to send out two clear messages.
The first consists in saying that the Lisbon Strategy is not synonymous with unbridled competition between the Member States. Instead, we champion a model of cooperation and solidarity between the Member States.
The second message consists in saying that, in a European Union of 25 Member States, there can be no first and second class citizens or workers.
I shall now give you three practical examples, in connection with which I should expect you to communicate a more proactive stance. Firstly, the free movement of workers. You have referred to this and published a report – which is all very commendable - and you are very pleased that a number of nations have fallen in with the line taken by the Commission. I should expect both the President of the Commission and the College of Commissioners to act in the interests of the European Union by politely telling those states that do not wish to fall in with the Commission or that are reticent about doing so that they are going down the wrong road.
I turn now to my second example. On the subject of the Services Directive, Parliament rejected the country of origin principle (or COP). What was the problem with this principle? It was an unwillingness to organise the single market by having insufficiently harmonised national rules compete against each other. In order to reassure workers, you should now state clearly that Portuguese, Germans and Slovaks working on a building site in Poland must receive the same salaries, and vice versa. In other words, the Posting of Workers Directive must be strengthened, and it is your prerogative to do that.
Now for my third example. When it comes to the issue of taxation development in Europe, the Commission has made progress on the matter of harmonising the tax base within the framework of business taxation. In 2007-2008, you are to lodge a report on the European Union’s budget and future resources. You should have the political will and the courage to say – and this is a matter broached by other Members – that it is unacceptable for the budget to be reduced to the point where the budget envisaged for young students or young workers is cut by a third.
In other words, Mr Barroso, I expect you, in implementing the Lisbon Strategy, not merely to take refuge behind the Member States, even if they have an important role to play. I expect you, instead, to go beyond your role of honest broker and, because you have a monopoly on legislative initiatives, genuinely to find the strength to champion European interests, which are threatened by the tendency for nations increasingly to withdraw into themselves."@en1
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