Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-05-Speech-2-222"
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"en.20090505.22.2-222"2
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"Madam President, Mr Vondra, Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, the world economy is plunging further and further into a serious recession. Despite numerous summits and other meetings between various parties, the fall in economic activity continues to be a high priority within Europe and around the world.
The various plans for economic recovery have at best slowed down this descent into the underworld, but signs of recovery are not yet apparent. What is worse, unemployment is continuing to rise, and will go beyond 25 million in Europe, perhaps even to 27 million unemployed this year, as suggested by Mr Rasmussen.
However, instead of focusing on the dramatic situation of employment, the Heads of State prefer to busy themselves at the next Prague summit with ‘major policy’ regarding future relations with certain countries on the Union’s Eastern border.
Good neighbourly relations are most certainly very important, but we need to be perfectly clear here: Parliament has declared itself on numerous occasions to be opposed to any future enlargement of the Union, unless an institutional reform enabling the 27 existing Member States to operate more efficiently is implemented as a precondition.
I should like to add that any future enlargement must be preceded by fundamental reform of the financial perspectives, and by an appropriate increase in the Union’s budget. Diplomacy without financial resources is merely a useless gesture.
The Union’s Czech Presidency would have better served Europe’s ambitions by organising a full employment summit. I realise however, that the Sarkozys, who prefer publicity stunts to real political work, sabotaged this badly needed summit, and I hope that next June, the European electorate will use their vote to choose Members capable of determining the real priorities for Europe: employment, employment, employment, social protection, and the defence of purchasing power.
I do not always agree with my Prime Minister, JeanClaude Juncker, but he is certainly correct when he predicts, and I quote, ‘a social crisis in the event of a steep rise in unemployment, expected in the coming months’. Therefore, by limiting themselves to an informal meeting on the subject of employment, the European leaders have backed away from the crisis, and are running the risk of a very serious social and political crisis."@en1
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