Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-15-Speech-1-020"
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"en.20070115.9.1-020"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, I should like, if I may, to extend warm greetings to Romania and Bulgaria as new members of the European family and welcome the new MEPs from those two countries. This is their home now. We have been working with the Bulgarian and Romanian observers since September 2005, and I feel sure that we will continue to work extremely well together in the years ahead.
Mr President – my dear Mr Borrell – you have been a President for all of us. The PPE-DE Group placed its trust in you and you did not let us down. You have always been open to requests made by Members of this House. You have made sure that Parliament’s voice has been heard loud and clear, not least in European Council meetings. On behalf of the PPE-DE Group, I should like to thank you most warmly. By way of a good luck message, I should like to borrow the words of Federico García Lorca, who said, excuse my Spanish, ‘
.’ [Wanderer, there is no path. The path is made walking.]
As far as our group is concerned, these new accessions constitute a highly significant event. The EU-27 must now face the great challenges of the future head on. I trust it will do so in as unified and, most importantly, as responsible a way as possible.
One thing is for sure: the current Treaties no longer equip us sufficiently for meeting the new reality. What we need, and the sooner the better, is new institutional rules of the game, without which Europe will not be in a position to resolve the major problems facing the continent.
Since your election, two and a half years ago, Mr President, Parliament has made great progress; the powers it now enjoys, the manner in which it performs its duties and its political maturity are clear for all to see.
To cite just two examples, the Services Directive and the REACH regulation on chemicals are two important cases in which Parliament has played a key role. Another positive development is that relations with the Commission have become better defined with the new framework agreement. I have no doubt, Mrs Wallström, that, like Parliament, the Commission will honour all its commitments in this regard.
Europe will only move forward if the European institutions, and in particular the Commission and Parliament, work in an atmosphere of mutual respect and positive cooperation.
Mr President, you have worked hard to strengthen dialogue between the European and national parliaments. This is how we will succeed in convincing the citizens of the importance of action taken jointly by the EU Member States to address their day-to-day concerns. We must step up this partnership and improve its structure. The PPE-DE Group will propose strong initiatives to meet this objective.
During your term of office, Mr President, you have shown that Parliament is capable of functioning effectively with representatives of the 25 Member States, now 27, including the Bulgarian and Romanian observers. In order for this to work even better in the future, you had the wisdom to propose parliamentary reform, which will also help us meet this objective from the moment it is adopted.
You have also succeeded, along with the Luxembourg Presidency, in overseeing the adoption of a Members’ Statute, on which I congratulate you. We are all aware that this was a particularly tough task that you had to accomplish."@en1
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"Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar"1
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