Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-05-Speech-2-204"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the next European Council will take place in the same month as the European elections. This essential ballot will be held against a background of real difficulties for many of our citizens. I am thinking in particular of the impact of the crisis on jobs, and we shall have occasion to speak about this in more detail later on this afternoon.
We have to speak clearly and with conviction to the electorate about this Europe of results. That is what will enable us to give new momentum to a bold and confident European Union. Europe needs it. It needs to make this year of crisis and transition a year that is more active, more imaginative and more determined than ever.
This will be our guiding principle for the June European Council. We cannot allow ourselves to slow down the pace of our efforts. We have to succeed for the sake of Europe. Therefore I am not going to look now at other issues – which Mr Vondra has mentioned anyway – such as the Council for the Eastern Partnership, which is very important, but I want to concentrate in particular on the areas which, in my opinion, constitute priorities for the June European Council.
The European Council will be called upon to move forward on a series of issues of critical importance for the months and years to come.
It will be called upon to continue the work to take us towards our goal of seeing the Lisbon Treaty enter into force. The European Union needs the benefits that this Treaty will bring. So we must put in place the institutional package agreed last December and supported by this Parliament: to settle the legal guarantees needed to take forward the referendum process in Ireland, and to take forward the steps to ensure a smooth transition and institutional stability.
On climate change, we need to keep up the momentum towards an ambitious agreement at Copenhagen in December. We have shown that strong and credible targets are possible. Now we need to encourage others to take on a comparable level of ambition – and to show that we are prepared to help those who need it. In short, we have to translate this momentum into a truly global result.
Inevitably, the main focus of the European Council will again be the economic crisis. From the first, the European Union has had to adapt to the different demands of the crisis: to stabilise the immediate financial crisis; to rebuild confidence in the financial system; to get banks lending again; to ensure global action that matches the global reach of the crisis; and to bring direct help to those made unemployed or at risk of losing their jobs.
Between now and the European Council, attention will be mainly focused on two areas. The first is the continuing work of rebuilding a regulatory and supervisory regime – a regime which must command the confidence of the public and the investment community alike. This is not only about building a stronger system for the long term to ensure that we do not expose our economy in the same way again; it is also about rebuilding confidence now, and showing the markets and the public that the European Union knows what has to be done.
Last week saw our proposals on hedge funds and private equity, as well as on executive pay. Those proposals demonstrate our capacity to be a prime mover in delivering the reforms agreed in the G20, and to set a standard for the actions we expect our international partners also to adopt in the coming months. Indeed, the Commission is the first executive body in the world to come up with concrete proposals on this very difficult and complex matter. The Commission, Parliament and the Council will have to cooperate closely over the next months to achieve agreement on those proposals.
The next step will be to set out in detail how we propose to organise supervision at European level. There is no point in beating about the bush. The current system of national supervision has failed. That is why I set up the de Larosière Group to provide input on how to build an effective European architecture for supervision. At the end of May, the Commission will present its blueprint for how to organise such a system of financial supervision in Europe. Here, again, I would like Europe to be the first to move at global level.
The second
of course, is employment. We will discuss the Employment Summit in more detail later. I can already announce now that the Commission will follow up this summit with a detailed communication ahead of the June European Council. I am determined that the European Union should do everything in its power to help those suffering most acutely in this time of crisis.
Our response to the crisis must be founded on our fundamental values of responsibility, solidarity and social justice. This crisis is an opportunity for us to renew our European model of a social market economy that is environmentally aware and based on our values.
Our response to the crisis cannot be limited to technical measures to address regulatory problems. It must be, and it must be seen to be, grounded in our core values – values like solidarity, social justice and responsibility, and also responsibility towards future generations. We need to seize this opportunity to rebuild the foundations of our very own European brand of social and ecological market economy.
This should be the overriding message of next month’s European Council: an active European Union, looking to the future, working hard for the benefit of citizens and deserving of the confidence of those citizens.
All Europeans of heart and conviction must be prepared to get involved. They must explain why Europe is so important, why citizens must play their part in it and why they must vote.
Ladies and gentlemen, you can be justifiably proud of the work that has been accomplished. The parliamentary term that is coming to an end can pride itself on its remarkable record. Parliament has shown its determination to achieve concrete results for citizens. It has proved that it had an ambitious vision of our common future.
The legacy of these last five years is very important. Historic decisions have been taken to fight against climate change and to strengthen our energy security. Measures have been adopted that have had direct effects on the security and freedom of citizens, and which have also opened up new possibilities to them.
Fundamental reforms have been carried out in the areas of the internal market, the social agenda, telecommunications, energy, the environment, justice and internal affairs. On all these points, the modernisation of Europe that has been undertaken bears Parliament’s stamp.
Also during the few last weeks, you have worked with the Czech Presidency to reach agreements on a great number of key issues. To date, almost 50 legislative proposals from the Commission have already been definitively adopted in codecision under the Czech Presidency.
Allow me to quote a few that have been at the heart of the agenda for the Commission of which I am President: the internal energy market, maritime security, measures to strengthen the regulation and supervision of financial markets, and the EUR 5 billion package of recovery measures to transform Europe into a sustainable economy.
I wish to congratulate Parliament and the Czech Presidency, under the leadership of Mr Topolánek and Mr Vondra, for the work that has been accomplished. I am sure that this work will continue until the end of June."@en1
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