Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-04-Speech-2-027"
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"en.20060404.6.2-027"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Verheugen, Commissioner Almunia, Commissioner Špidla, ladies and gentlemen, we all agree that the European single market presents us with our great opportunity, a great opportunity for us, with our 450 million people or thereabouts, to find our own way through globalisation, a way that must be marked by economic prosperity and sound finances, while also producing results that are real to ordinary people.
What we have to discuss – and this debate is fundamental to our doing so – is whether we have equipped ourselves with all the instruments we will need on this voyage, and whether we are making the right use of the instruments we have in order to give this internal market the right framework and influence the processes of economic development in the long term.
Let me make two observations which go beyond today’s debate and these reports. We will not succeed in this objective if we do not succeed – and soon – in putting the European Union on an independent and accountable financial footing, nor will we succeed in it if we do not succeed in talking about taboo subjects, including the need for a common fiscal policy in this European Union of ours.
The reason I say this is that, in the economic situation in which we find ourselves, there is no longer any justification for taboos of any kind. Anyone who brings fresh air into this debate has my backing, for, if we consider the economic situation, we simply cannot afford to carry on letting debates be ritualistic and keeping fresh air out of this House and out of our debates. In 2005, our economic development lagged behind what it had been in 2004; our unemployment rate is still alarmingly high at around nine per cent, and long-term unemployment in particular is again on the rise. I am very glad to hear Commissioner Almunia say – and he has my backing for saying it – that there are indications of the economy developing in the right direction, but I have to tell him that there is no guarantee that the European Union will be able to fuel its own recovery.
That is why we have to talk about what needs to be put on the agenda. When will we in the European Union at last introduce a common investment policy? That is the most urgent thing we have to do. When will we start investing, as a Community, in research and development? In the last ten years, we have managed to increase that investment from 1.8% to 1.9%. When will we start on better and longer-term investment in education, with a coordinated strategy in the Member States? When will we start making use of the great potential of energy efficiency? That is where the key to the next technological revolution is to be found, so let us set to work!
Where, in this field, are the Member States investing money? Where is Europe-wide discussion of it being guided? Looking at the transport sector, we sometimes feel that we actually ought to rewrite Delors’ White Paper in view of the many transposition deficits in this area, and if we were to face up to them and invest more, we could make progress.
Childcare is one of the core issues. If we invest more in childcare, we get higher birthrates and more people – women in particular – into the workplace; that much is demonstrated by statistics. We support all those who want to make advances in this area.
I urge you, once and for all, to put cooperation with this House on a proper institutional footing, and then we will no longer need – and I thank Mr García-Margallo for pointing this out – to spend our time merely writing own-initiative reports, but discussions in this House will be on a different and stable basis."@en1
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