Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-154"
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"en.20080219.28.2-154"2
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"The next item is the debate on the future of Europe, in which the Prime Minister of Sweden, a Member of the European Council, will take part.
Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you a warm welcome to this special sitting. In particular, I wish to extend a very warm welcome to Mr Fredrik Reinfeldt, Prime Minister of Sweden. Välkommen till Europaparlamentet! Welcome!
It gives me – and all of us – great pleasure, Prime Minister, to welcome you today to the European Parliament for the first time to discuss the future of the European Union with us.
I have just seen Simeon Sakskoburggotski, the former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, in the gallery. I bid you a warm welcome to the European Parliament.
The Treaty that was signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007 takes the European Union in a new direction. After many years of discussion, we finally have a Treaty that matches the needs of the enlarged European Union, enabling it to devote itself to fulfilling the hopes and expectations of the European people by means of democratic procedures. Not only will the new Treaty provide for more transparency in the activity of the Union, which has always been a matter of particular importance to Sweden; it also makes combating climate change a new aim of the European Union, and that is an area in which Sweden can already boast major successes. Your country, Prime Minister, has every reason to be proud of its leading role in Europe in the use of renewable energy sources. We in the European Union must be united in pursuing the offensive against climate change, so that we can jointly play a leading global role in that struggle. Only last week at the United Nations, I saw what great hopes the UN places in the European Union in particular, as well as in the European Parliament as its legislative arm.
The Lisbon Treaty gives us instruments to pursue the goals that are important to our future, and to implement rapidly the reforms we need for that purpose. Like you, Prime Minister, the European Parliament firmly believes that the new Treaty should enter into force by 1 January 2009. The European Parliament was therefore pleased to learn of the announcement made by the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, of its intention to ratify the new Treaty by November 2008.
If the ratification process can be successfully completed on time in all 27 Member States, the Swedish Presidency of the Council will be able, in the second half of 2009, to devote itself to the major challenges of the future within a new institutional framework. Sweden will lead us into a new era of European integration. Together, on the basis of the new Treaty and with a newly elected European Parliament, a new Commission and Sweden holding the presidency, we shall be able to open a new chapter of enhanced cooperation.
Whether in the field of energy security, climate change, the continued development of the Nordic dimension of the Union, or EU strategy for the Baltic Sea, we expect Sweden to be a source of powerful impetus. This is why we keenly await your remarks on the future shape of the European Union. Prime Minister, I now invite you to address the European Parliament."@en1
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