Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-14-Speech-2-200"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20061114.36.2-200"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioners, I should like first of all to congratulate the European Commission, which is presenting us with a much more political programme today and which, for the first time, is going all out for simplification by presenting a reduced number of priority sectors in its legislative and work programme for 2007. That will be useful to us in a year that promises to be crucial for the European Union, as it is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. It will indeed be necessary to breathe new life into European integration by renewing the link with our fellow citizens.
A number of studies suggest that the European Union could create a million direct and indirect jobs in the energy efficiency sector. Thus, not only would the search for greater efficiency enable the European Union’s economy to save considerable sums. It could also make a major contribution to competitiveness and employment, which are key objectives of the Lisbon agenda.
We would also ask the Commission to continue to play a pivotal role in the fight against global warming, which has consequences in economic and social, as well as strictly environmental, terms. The European Union will have to bring all its weight to bear in requiring the use of certain ecologically more effective products.
What is more, 2007 will be the year of an important new stage in the historic process of enlargement of the European Union, as it is then that our Bulgarian and Romanian friends will join us. Moreover, you yourself, Mr President, have just told us that enlargement of the EU is the most important tool for peace of the last fifty years.
It is therefore essential for these priority areas to be seen as challenges that will have to be taken up. It is also, however, a question of communicating more with all Europeans. Our group welcomes, moreover, the Commission’s initiative in making communication one of its strategic objectives.
In conclusion, I would point out to you that, having arrived at the half-way point of our term of office, we almost want to say: let us stop talking about programmes, as our fellow citizens hate lists of promises. The watchwords are: action, more action and still more action. Mr President, we are ready to support you as we go down that route.
You are, indeed, presenting to us a series of 21 strategic initiatives – perhaps rather too many for some people – which will be at the heart of the Commission’s activities in 2007, as well as a series of priority initiatives which will have to be adopted in the course of the next 12 to 18 months.
This legitimate demand for flexibility appears, at least to our Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, to entail two possible disadvantages. Firstly, the drawing up in parallel of two lists of priorities inevitably creates some confusion concerning the relative importance to be attached to each type of objective and concerning the links between the two categories. Secondly, spreading the programme out over 18 months means that there is a danger of slowing down the work of the Commission. Our group therefore believes that it would be more appropriate to retain annual, twelve-month, structuring and, above all, to require ourselves to respect the deadlines, something that does not always happen at present.
We also need to remain alert to the fact that many of the ambitious objectives announced by the European Commission need to take account of the budgetary provisions in force. Nor must pointless structures constantly be created. I am thinking, for example, of the creation of new agencies in order to solve this or that problem. One has the impression in the end that, when no solution is found to a problem, the decision is taken to create an agency. That being said, a number of agencies manifestly continue to be effective, on the model of the European Medicines Agency.
Before going on to create other structures, however, let us firstly take stock of the existing structures. Otherwise, you are in danger of one day proposing to us the creation of a new agency designed to divide up and supervise the agencies in each Member State. Do we really need to have 27 agencies because we shall have 27 Member States? Costs must remain reasonable and produce what our Anglo-Saxon friends call proper value for money, that is to say a sound cost-benefit ratio.
The Commission’s work programme also emphasises the importance of impact studies and re-states the Commission’s intention to create a new body responsible for supporting such studies and monitoring their quality. Parliament will keep a watchful eye on these impact studies and emphasises the need for objectivity so that they are carried out with the greatest possible transparency.
In order to improve European competitiveness, we shall ensure that there is a reduction in all forms of bureaucracy and that any superfluous legislation is done away with. In this area, it is important to involve the European Parliament more and to improve the
evaluation of the measures adopted.
For this reason, Mr President, our group believes that the number of strategic initiatives needs to be reduced so as to avoid the pitfall of having too many of them. There is indeed a risk of moving away from a practical work programme – a development that could harm the European Union.
Our group is nonetheless very pleased with the six priority areas defined by the Commission for 2007. I shall not go back and list these priority areas, but I should like to emphasise a number of points, including the energy issue. The European Union’s growing dependence where energy is concerned is a factor of which account needs to be taken from now on, and that is all the more the case since last week’s power failure. The EU will have to seek other means of reducing the harmful effects of energy dependence. Our group believes that energy efficiency, the increased use of renewable sources of energy and a structured dialogue with the producer countries and with consumers will enable this objective to be achieved."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples