Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-14-Speech-2-198"
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"en.20061114.36.2-198"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, ladies and gentlemen, when the lights went out across Europe last week, our interdependence as Europeans was laid bare for all to see. In a flash, greater integration ceased to be some abstract ideal. For millions of our citizens, it became a necessity. The incident – dare I say it – was illuminating. The argument for more Europe has not so much been won, as rendered superfluous. It is now clear to everyone that we face more shared challenges than ever before – thanks in part to the forces unleashed by globalisation. And shared challenges demand shared solutions, whether they relate to growth and jobs in an increasingly competitive world, climate change, energy security or, indeed, international terrorism.
We still have much to achieve by the end of this year. I hope that the European Council will approve the enlargement package we adopted last week. We need to move forward on immigration and innovation policy and we still have important proposals to adopt in areas like labour law, copyright levies, neighbourhood policy, CO2 emissions from cars and emissions trading.
So the first years of this Commission, working in a spirit of partnership with this Parliament, have meant renewing, reorienting and re-tooling, to create a Europe of results, a Europe fit to face the shared challenges of the 21st century. These efforts are already bearing fruit: growth has been revised upwards to its highest level in six years; unemployment has dropped to its lowest level since we started collecting EU25 data in 1998.
Now 2007 – the year we celebrate 50 years of European construction – will mark a turning point. It will mark the moment when a Europe of 27, after careful preparation, throws the full weight of the Union’s re-tuned machinery behind the delivery of solutions to our citizens’ shared concerns. It will mark the moment when a new budgetary framework unlocks modernised financing programmes, which move towards Europe’s new agenda.
So this is the context for our 2007 Work Programme. It is a new type of programme that has greatly benefited from input from this Parliament, the Council and the other institutions: valuable input that will continue with this debate and the resolution you adopt.
This Work Programme addresses many of Parliament’s concerns that have been conveyed to me and to the Commission. This new Work Programme is more political. It is focused on a smaller list of 21 strategic initiatives. The Commission is committed to delivering all of these next year, and they will not be subject to a mid-term review. A second list of priority initiatives fills out our work in other important areas.
In addition, we have responded to calls from Parliament to include a list of simplification measures and withdrawals of legislative proposals in the Work Programme. This underlines the message that Better Regulation is now an integral part of the Commission’s day-to-day tasks. Today, in the College meeting, we adopted our strategic review of Better Regulation that takes stock of progress to date and sets out an ambitious programme of new initiatives. This includes new action in the following areas: impact assessment, where we will establish an Impact Assessment Board; simplification, where we will add important new initiatives to our rolling programme; and administrative burdens, where we will suggest a target to the Spring European Council next year to cut such burdens at European Union and Member State levels by 25% by 2012. In parallel, we will present an action plan in two months’ time defining priority areas for action.
We are also continuing to screen, and in a number of cases withdraw, pending proposals. We are recommending that future Commissions do the same at the beginning of their mandates as an expression of the changed political composition of a new Commission, so showing the importance of political legitimacy and political leadership. This review responds to a very large extent to the priorities of the European Parliament, as expressed in several reports earlier this year. I hope you will give your full endorsement to this package, including to its practical implementation.
So what does the 2007 Work Programme feature? Let me highlight some key areas, those I believe to be politically very sensitive.
First, energy. Building on our Green Paper and measures for greater energy efficiency earlier this year, we will present the first ever Strategic Energy Review for Europe. This will include the building blocks for an integrated European Union energy policy, for example measures to complete the internal market for electricity and gas; to accelerate take-up of new low-carbon technologies; and to diversify and secure supplies both within and outside Europe. The goal is a common European energy policy that will ensure our security of supply, while maintaining Europe’s competitiveness and safeguarding our environmental objectives.
Closely linked to this – in fact I could say they are two parts of the same agenda – will be action on climate change. We will put forward options for a European Union climate change policy and perspectives for international cooperation post-Kyoto. A revision of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme will provide greater stability for investments and accelerate the momentum to cut greenhouse gases.
We can be proud of our response so far to this rapidly changing landscape. First, we renewed the Lisbon Agenda and placed the emphasis squarely on growth and jobs. As a result, it was possible to restore confidence in the Stability and Growth Pact, putting it on a more realistic and workable footing.
Europe’s demographic squeeze calls for greater efforts to attract economic migrants, particularly those who are skilled. A European regime for labour immigration will give such migrants a secure legal status, while clarifying their obligations and their rights. In order to reduce illegal immigration and exploitation of workers, this will be coupled with a clampdown on unscrupulous employers of third-country nationals who enter Europe illegally.
European public policy can have a fundamental impact on the way people live their lives. To be effective, it must be properly attuned to the needs of modern society. The Commission will undertake a fundamental stocktaking of European society, which will serve as a basis for European policy-making into the next decade. As I have said several times, Europe is more than a market. Europe without the concept of solidarity is not really a European Union.
Our core business, in terms of our competences under the Treaties, will not be forgotten either. The Commission will continue to defend, extend and modernise the single market. A key target for 2007 will be the defence industries and markets, which have been fragmented for far too long. We will also set out the way forward on services of general interest in the coming weeks.
A final area of concern to all our citizens is security. The Commission will bring forward additional measures to combat terrorism, with a particular focus on fighting terrorist propaganda and the sharing of expertise – on explosives for example – for terrorist purposes.
The year 2007 will also mark a turning point in our search for an institutional settlement. The Berlin Declaration, marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, will allow Europe’s leaders to renew their commitment to an enlarged, global and competitive Europe, where solidarity is a central principle. I believe it should be a short, sharp political declaration, affirming what unites us and – above all – making clear where we want to go and what we want Europe to be for the next 50 years. Following my initial proposal, I am happy to see that everything is now moving in the direction of having a joint statement, a statement by the Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament, thus showing that the commitment to the European Union is today a shared commitment of the main political institutions of our Union.
I am pleased to see that the search for an institutional settlement is also a priority for the German Presidency. So I am confident that the elements are in place for an important breakthrough. This is important, because Europe needs an institutional settlement. There are indeed serious costs derived from not having a constitutional treaty. We need the constitutional treaty because, as a European Union, we need to be more effective in our decision-making, more coherent in our external action and more transparent and democratic in our working. Make no mistake: the Commission will be an active player in the search for solutions here.
When this Commission took office, there was unfinished business to deal with and to reform. With the help of this Parliament and the Council, these things have been dealt with, put behind us, or turned around: we now have the financial perspectives; we now have the revised Stability and Growth Pact. In fact I hope tomorrow we can say we will have the revised Services Directive, to be approved by a parliamentary vote. That shows that we are solving some of the planning problems and proposals.
It has been hard work, but it is already bearing fruit. The 2007 Work Programme builds on these new foundations.
So we can conclude the work on decisions that were already in the pipeline but also launch new, very important, projects for the work of Europe, such as energy policy. For the first time we have the chance to have a real common approach to energy, to be more ambitious in the fight against climate change, to look at the entire field of justice and at the fight against illegal migration. This is a new frontier for Europe and we need to take a European approach. So we see that Europe is on the move. There are problems. We know the problems that exist, but there are great possibilities and there is, more than ever, the need for a strong Europe.
Europe’s leaders agreed to put globalisation at the centre of its policy agenda, and the Commission has been busy equipping the European Union with the tools it needs, and using those tools, on a whole range of concerns that European citizens share. To boost growth and jobs, the European institutions have continued work to unleash the full potential of the single market. At the same time, we have renewed our commitment to social solidarity, including the setting-up of the Globalisation Adjustment Fund, a useful shock absorber for the powerful motor of globalisation.
So as we celebrate Europe’s 50th anniversary next year, we can do so with much greater confidence. Once again, I believe Europe will be able to show its relevance by reinventing itself for the 21st century.
To show our commitment to practical results and to working hard for a stronger European Union, this can be a fitting birthday present for the 50th anniversary of Europe, a birthday present for Europe and all its citizens.
To ensure that Europe thrives in the knowledge economies of tomorrow, innovation became a central part of our economic and social strategies and today innovation is at the core of the concerns of European leaders. The establishment of the European Institute of Technology will help reverse the fragmentation of research, education and innovation efforts, which has stunted progress so far.
The document ‘Europe in the World’ tackles the need to develop a global voice which matches our economic weight in the world. This will also reinforce our efforts in areas where we have already exerted leadership, notably in the debate on a future international climate change regime.
And we have successfully steered Romania and Bulgaria towards European Union membership. We have proposed the two new Commissioners and allocated the portfolios. One will be responsible for consumer affairs and the other for multilingualism, to protect and to reinforce European cultural pluralism and diversity. Intercultural aspects are more and more important in the Europe of today. I am very proud that this further step – Romania and Bulgaria joining the Union – has taken place and that my Commission has made an important contribution to it. I think we should all be very proud of what has been achieved through successive enlargements. Let there be no doubt: in centuries to come, historians will say that enlargement was the greatest instrument for peace, prosperity and stability of our generation.
On that note, I would like to say it is more than time we stopped talking about ‘old’ and ‘new’ Member States. More than ever before, we are now one Europe, united in all our diversity, and that is something we should celebrate.
We have also laid the groundwork in many other areas that concern us all – sustainable development, maritime policy, and energy efficiency, to name just a few."@en1
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