Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-25-Speech-3-014"
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"en.20090325.2.3-014"2
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"Mr President, I shall begin by congratulating Prime Minister Topolánek on the excellent preparation of the European Summit and on what has so far been a very good presidency. Several months ago many politicians doubted whether a small country in Central and Eastern Europe would be able to carry the burden of leadership of the European Union. Mr Topolánek and his entire cabinet have proved that it is possible. Once again I congratulate you, and at what is a difficult moment for you because of domestic problems, I hope that you will be able to solve those problems and that you will also prepare the next summit in three months’ time.
However, because we are among friends, we must speak sincerely. I would like to talk about several matters concerning the summit which I view critically, although my criticism is not directed at Mr Topolánek personally.
I will start with support for the Eastern Partnership. A sum of EUR 600 million has been made available for this over five years, but we know that of this only EUR 350 million is new money. Together this means barely EUR 20 million annually for each country which is part of the project. Is that really sufficient for the EU to build its influence in the region? While talking about our Eastern partners, I would like to ask what has been decided on the question of visas for them? It seems to me that absolutely nothing has been decided. In fact a decision has been made to refuse any kind of cooperation in this area. We must ask ourselves if we want to deter our Eastern neighbours or to encourage them to work with us? It looks as if some Member States, in order not to make themselves unpopular with Russia, are trying to weaken the idea of the Eastern Partnership.
We can see obstruction for the same reason when we consider construction of the Nabucco gas pipeline. The allocation of EUR 200 million to the project, which has an estimated cost of construction of EUR 8 billion, only brings a smile of pity to the faces of our partners. We should remember that for reasons of our own energy security we should be the ones most interested in building a channel for transporting fuel from the Caspian Sea Basin region to Europe, and that the channel should not be dependent on the will of the Kremlin.
At the summit EUR 5 billion was also allocated to the anti-crisis package. Part of this money will go to large energy projects, including EUR 330 million to my country, Poland. Unfortunately, a condition was adopted which is very hard to meet, namely that the money must be spent by the end of next year. That sum has become virtual money, because knowing the tempo of absorption of EU funds by the Polish Government, the money may not be spent and then will no longer be available. Therefore I propose extending the time frame of availability for these funds.
While I am talking about the summit, I would also like to sum up the earlier informal anti-crisis summit held in Brussels, which was an initiative of Mr Topolánek. The participants of that summit unanimously opposed economic protectionism. Meanwhile, several days ago we were given proof that the resolutions made at the summit have little meaning, when the French motor concern Renault announced that it is moving production from Slovenia back to France. Unfortunately, this shows that at a time of economic crisis the EU’s fundamental principle of solidarity is giving way to economic egoism. I appeal to Mr Topolánek to put an end to this."@en1
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