Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-05-Speech-2-209"
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"en.20090505.22.2-209"2
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"Mr President, President-in-Office of the Council, President of the Commission, the Council meeting that will take place next month will have a particular focus on the economic affairs of the European Union. Proposals must be created that will return the economy to its previous state. These proposals must be implemented immediately to restart the economy.
Today, when we speak about the future of Europe, 99% of the people we speak to, or we claim to speak to, do not care about the future of Europe so much as their own future. They care about the economic situation and the uncertainty that is there at present. Too often within this Chamber, or even within the institutions of the European Union, we seem to be stuck on getting one ideological fix over another ideological fix, rather than dealing with the real and exacting problems that people face.
To that extent, I think we have already seen great leadership from the Commission and from the Council as regards their initial response to the economic crisis. Decisive, quick action to put stability into the banking system; decisive, quick action to create a level of certainty and confidence within the operation of the markets within the European Union; and, most importantly of all, ambition – an ambitious vision of what the future can be. Not waiting to react or to respond to events elsewhere but leading the charge as to what will happen.
Rather than point the finger of blame at one Commissioner or another Commissioner, and rather than make party politics, as some have tried to with regard to this, we should be striving to come together collectively and chart a new way forward on how best we can respond. In doing that, we have to be innovative, we have to be creative, and, most importantly of all, we have to be honest with people as regards what we are capable of delivering and of doing. Too often we tend to speak in sound bites and play to the gallery rather than dealing with the factual events that are before us.
We have made mistakes in the past: to err is human, to forgive is divine, as the old saying goes. Even more importantly, as the old saying goes, we may all be lying in the gutter, but some of us are reaching for the stars. That is the kind of ambition that we now need to ensure that we can lift up the economic situation within the European Union, create new employment, new hope and new opportunities to ensure that the collective wisdom, the collective strength and the collective power that the European Union now presents can be used as a force of good, not just within Europe but around the world to set an example of what should happen.
Finally, I want to thank the present President-in-Office, Mr Vondra, for his continuing contribution to this debate within the Chamber, for the respect and courtesy he has shown us at all times and, despite the difficult political circumstances that exist at home, for continuing to deliver the programme for the Czech Presidency.
In conclusion, I wish to say that when we fight these coming elections I do not have the luxury that other colleagues may have of being on a list. I have to go out and meet ordinary people every day and deal with their ordinary concerns. What they are worried about is their jobs, their mortgages and their children’s future, and that is what we should respond to."@en1
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