Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20080312.3.3-013"2
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"Mr President, I would like to welcome the President-in-Office as well as the President of the Commission to discuss what our elders, wise men and some would say our betters – although I do not necessarily agree with that – will be discussing during the summit over the coming days.
Rather than going back over everything that my colleagues have said, because I can agree with most of the contributions, I would say that it is not one or the other but rather a combination of all: trying to drag the best ideas out of all the different proposals that have been put forward and utilising them as the unique model which Europe must follow. I say that because our experience over the last 30 years, and in particular the last 20 years, has shown that it is not either one or the other. You cannot have economic growth without proper social cohesion and social protection. You cannot have protection of the environment without proper investment in new resources, information technology and research and development to create the innovative ways of dealing with the problems we are now facing.
Likewise, you cannot solve unemployment simply by saying that we want more jobs. You have to encourage companies and businesses to create the jobs, to invest the money and to create the wealth. Only so much can be done by public services, whether it is public investment for infrastructure or whatever else. Ultimately it comes down to businessmen and businesswomen in small and medium-sized enterprises – which employ 62% of all the people employed within the European Union – investing more money in creating more and more jobs.
That requires a certain amount of flexibility. However, flexibility should not be a byword for a diminution of standards or of the protection of workers’ rights. Likewise, you cannot use one bad example, like the Laval case – bad enough as it is – to say that everybody else must be controlled to the most rigorous level. It must be used as a starting point, not as the end game. Look at the challenges that we face in the European Union today: our lack of investment in proper research and development. The best and the brightest from European universities and institutions are leaving Europe to do their research and further work in America, Japan and now even China. And look at the relocation of European industry and business: it is not to other countries within Europe, which was the case 10 or 12 years ago; it is now outside the European Union, to India, Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries.
What we really need to be focusing on now is not just where the sudden subprime market difficulties are creating short-term difficulties today. If we look back over the last 25 years of the economic markets, they go in cycles: there are troughs and there are highs. What we have to ensure is that the foundation stones that we put down today will be as strong in 15 years’ time as they are today, that they will continue to deliver economic growth and that they will continue to deliver security of energy supply. The President of Estonia told us here yesterday that Russia is now acting like a superpower, to use its superpower status in oil and gas to influence foreign policy. We must ensure that there is solidarity within the European Union to face up to and to meet that challenge.
Our best and most valuable asset is our young people. If we do not invest properly in education and training and give them skills and opportunities in the European Union, we risk losing them.
Finally, let me say to the President-in-Office that I want to pay a small tribute to the young people in Slovenia for their work during Slovenia’s Presidency – particularly those in the protocol section – and the welcome and the image they give of Slovenia as a country."@en1
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