Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-18-Speech-2-021"
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"en.20071218.5.2-021"2
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"Mr President, I would like – I do not think any of my colleagues have done it officially – to congratulate the Portuguese Prime Minister, Mr Sócrates, on a very successful Council and, most importantly, on getting the signing of the Lisbon Treaty.
The point you rightly raise yourself with regard to the issues of how Europe can move forward and face the challenges that are before us is one that has been hindered or retarded because of the lack of efficient decision-making within the Union institutions. And, whilst some in this House might not agree with the final agreement in the Lisbon Treaty and others feel that it went too far, the reality was that the existing Treaties did not equip us well for dealing with those problems. And, if anything, the Conference at Bali proved how important it was that Europe can speak with a single voice on those areas where the European Union has the powers to make those decisions and the ability to act on the global stage.
Obviously, what took place in the Council afterwards is slightly different. And that sets out more guidelines and the way forward that we want to see happening.
I should just like to revert back very briefly to what I consider to be the single greatest achievement of the Portuguese Presidency and that is your perseverance with the Africa Summit. Because, no matter what anybody else says, our nearest neighbour in development terms, in humanitarian aid terms and in risk terms is the African continent and for too long too many Member States, too many prime ministers of Member States have been standing on their high horse showing high indignation because one particular person in Africa was wrongfully abusing people’s human rights and freedoms.
But then we condemned all of Africa through a failure on our part in Europe to help them to build joint and common strategies with regard to how we process development and allow Africa not just to grow economically or in trade terms but to allow them to take leadership roles to help those countries in Africa that have been successful and to give guidance and direction to other countries that need to be brought forward.
In a lot of ways this is mirroring what the European Union did at its very early stages, when the vision of the founding fathers of the European Union came together after the horrors of the First and Second World Wars. Through their vision they tried to encourage other countries to come forward until such time as we see now: former dictatorships, former totalitarian regimes are now part of the body of democratic families within the European Union.
Prime Minister, I congratulate you and all of your ministerial team, but in particular all of your civil servants, because they are the people that do all the background work and create the opportunities for us to shine and to rise.
Finally, if I could thank the Commission as well, because they have had a great role to play with ironing out some of the creases and the difficulties that have been faced in this whole process.
I wish you all success for the ratification process. In my country, Ireland, we have a referendum when people will have an opportunity to vote, but I congratulate the Hungarian Parliament for their decision today on the ratification process."@en1
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