Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-24-Speech-2-033"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20090324.3.2-033"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Madam President, cohesion policy in all its forms is meant to be the engine of equality, and it has had many successes. However, cohesion policy should be considered in the light of a long-term assessment of its overall effect. In such an assessment, the question is simple: are communities and the people who live in them better off because of EU cohesion policies and the structural funds that support them? With an honest look at the record, one would probably find that the immediate answer is ‘yes’, but that in the long term it is too often ‘no’.
We are told that farmers in Ireland did well – and that is true. But why then, in the long term, are there so few farmers left and so many unemployed and under-employed in Irish rural areas? Was it that the structural funds and cohesion policy were no match for the CAP? Or that they could not mitigate the common fisheries policy, which, over three and a half decades, decimated Irish coastal communities and fish stocks in Irish waters? And why, with better roads and infrastructure – courtesy of EU funds – is Limerick in the south-west of Ireland becoming an employment black spot? Is it because cohesion policy has nothing to say in response to competition policy, which allows a new Member State to entice away Dell, a keystone industry in the area, with EUR 54 million in state aid?
Cohesion policy strives for equality, yet privatising directives, such as the Postal Directive, have had the effect of further eliminating services to poorly serviced areas. The problem may be that our cohesion policy has no cohesion with other EU policies, like competition, market liberalisation etc.
The secret is that cohesion does not come from policies: it comes from basic unifying principles that should run through every policy – principles of respect for the human person, real subsidiarity, priority of the vulnerable, respect for life, stewardship of creation, the importance of family, the dignity of work, solidarity and a central focus on the common good. Until all EU policies are guided by these principles, programmes will continue to conflict."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples