Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-226"
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"en.20080219.30.2-226"2
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"Madam President, after a long debate, we finally have a text which we as Socialists can support, and I welcome this compromise on the Lisbon resolution.
However, let me start by expressing a personal opinion, which is that having an idea is not the whole solution. Everything depends on the execution. One has to put the two together. In 2000, the idea of Lisbon was good and very timely. Nor could we identify better targets than we did during the 2005 review. But if one looks at the execution itself – especially looking back at that execution through time and along the full decision-making chain – it is another story. There has been an improvement compared to the first five years, and we have acquired some dynamism, but the results compared to the needs and the global challenges we face, and compared to the potential we have, are limited.
We have had some great initiatives and success stories, like the Growth and Jobs programme or the ‘Think Small First’ project, and there have been some great legislative successes – the Services Directive, the supervision of the financial markets regulation, climate change policy and the new energy package, to list just a few. But the overall feeling is missing, and the commitment itself is missing. In the European institutions we can see this in the decreased use of the expression ‘connecting to the agenda’. It can be seen in the very low interest in the topic last week during the joint parliamentary session with the national parliaments, and it can be seen simply by reading the Eurobarometer results.
I would like to quote two numbers from the Eurobarometer. The so-called optimism index has decreased over the last nine months by nine points, from 26 to 17. Also, if one looks at other key performance indicators, the employment optimism index has fallen by three points from +4 to +1 in the last nine months. If one looks further, the key elements of the Lisbon Strategy are amongst the last issues people consider to be the most important. This means that, eight years after Lisbon, European citizens do not believe that the EU can provide proper responses on these issues.
So Lisbon is still in our documents, but is certainly not in our hearts and minds. In the 21st century the race of continents will not be decided only by natural and energy resources or by financial resources. The power of human capital and human resources will determine the winner. The conjunction of the total population, in terms of quantity, and the consistency of its knowledge, in terms of quality, will jointly decide the strength of the Community. We still have a lot to do as regards knowledge creation, knowledge management and the motivation of people as a Community. This is a Community that we need to consider as a whole, not letting anyone be discriminated against. We cannot leave anyone out, whether young or old, black or white, rich or poor. We need everyone – the people as a whole. In the 21st century, real people will be central, yet the Commission President is not here today to speak about this ..."@en1
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