Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-07-15-Speech-3-014"
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"en.20090715.4.3-014"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour for me to be able to greet you at the opening of your five-year mandate. The Czech Presidency has come to an end and a new European Parliament is just starting out. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your election and on the fact that you have been entrusted by the voters in your countries to represent them in this important European body. I congratulate Jerzy Buzek on his election as President of the European Parliament, along with all of the Vice-Presidents elected yesterday, and I wish you all much success in your important work and in the fulfilment of all the ideas with which you commence your work in the European Parliament.
The Czech Republic is drawing up an account of its six-month leadership of the European Council for a different Parliament to the one that was in place when it assumed the role. This changes nothing in terms of our own assessment of our Presidency, of course. On the contrary, I see it rather as a confirmation of continuity in European politics. In the same way, by tackling the effects of the global economic crisis and the issues of energy and energy security, the new Swedish Presidency will continue to fulfil two of the main tasks which occupied us. The first half of this year will go down in the history of the European Union as a period of demanding tests arising from a complex economic and political situation. We anticipated some of these tests, in particular the continuing and already full-blown economic crisis and the need to complete the institutional reform of the EU. Others were unexpected and some were entirely unexpected, such as the conflict in Gaza and the crisis over Russian gas supplies in the very first hours of the Czech Presidency. Our ability to run the Presidency was then put to the test, of course, due to events on the domestic political scene, when the Czech Republic changed government just as we were two thirds of the way through the Presidency. Unlike many people, I do not think that the political crisis in the Czech Republic seriously damaged the EU as a whole, although I agree that the fall of the government was unfortunate. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that we handled the administration of our Presidency without faltering and that we managed over the entire six months to fulfil our priorities – the planned tasks arising from the EU agenda – and to deal with unexpected topical issues on a continuous basis and with total engagement. This was also due to the fact that the specialist teams in the Czech Republic all carried on working with total commitment, loyalty and one hundred percent professionalism. It was also due to the fact that the Czech Presidency received full backing from the Commission following the change of government. I benefited personally from the support of Commission President José Manuel Barroso and I also received strong support at the time – if you will allow me to add a personal note here – from various Member State representatives. This was an enormous help at the time, both for the Czech Government and for me personally.
I would like to give notice that I shall not be indulging in any philosophical or political analyses. I do not want to weigh up the political dimensions or cogency of EU leadership under large versus small countries or old versus new countries or the pros and cons of political versus bureaucratic governments in the country holding the Presidency. I will leave that to others and for the rest I will say only that a decent and open-minded analysis requires a certain amount of distance and the falling away of emotions and short-term interests. From now on I will eschew grand words and pathos. I would rather concentrate on bare facts backed up by statistics where appropriate – as statistics is after all my life-long profession and possibly even my passion – or on what Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic, called the small everyday tasks. As you know, the, Czech Republic expressed its main presidential priorities as the ‘Three Es’: the economy, energy policy and the EU’s role in the world. Circumstances, I think, have demonstrated clearly that these were highly topical, valid themes and their validity is by no means limited to the first half of 2009. They are areas that will continue to require all of our combined efforts in the future, in order for the Union to stand its ground even in times of instability and to benefit its citizens – which is the main reason for it being here. They are priorities which put the idea of integration to the test, demonstrating in practice how faithful we are to the values which were there at the birth of the Community and which define Europe as a common area of freedom, security and prosperity. We selected the motto of ‘Europe without barriers’ to represent this effort symbolically. The economic crisis tested our faithfulness to the idea of integration to the full, adding an even more urgent significance to the Czech Presidency’s motto. The results of the many discussions held over the past half-year and the conclusions of the European Councils show that the twenty-seven Member States passed this test with flying colours. Under the Czech Presidency we turned our backs on protectionism and we agreed on a common and coordinated approach to dealing with the effects of the crisis both in an EU context and on the international stage.
In the same way we succeeded in fulfilling a task which many thought us incapable of; the issue of institutional reform. The Czech Republic itself successfully completed the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon by both chambers of parliament. This was a clear and convincing expression of political will and it opened up the possibility of a credible solution to the question of the Irish guarantees. I firmly believe that, as a result of the guarantees agreed on at the June European Council, there is a good chance that Ireland will complete the Treaty ratification process as well, so that it can enter into force by the end of 2009. The Czech Presidency also took a serious approach to a task that is connected with the election of this new European Parliament, namely initiating the process of appointing a Commission for the next legislative period 2009–2014. At the June European Council a clear political consensus was achieved on José Manuel Barroso as the candidate for President of the next Commission. The authority for the Czech Presidency and the incoming Swedish Presidency to hold talks with the European Parliament creates the preconditions for preserving institutional continuity. Overall, the Czech Presidency has managed to achieve a series of concrete results or visible progress in all three priority areas. In the legislative area, negotiations over more than 80 concrete measures were brought to a successful conclusion, thanks above all to close cooperation with the Member States and EU institutions, particularly the European Parliament. In the non-legislative area a series of notable successes were also achieved, including the handling of the foreign policy and energy crises at the beginning of the year, the rejection of protectionist tendencies, decisive measures in support of the European economy, steps towards diversification of energy supply and climate protection and the results of negotiations with key partners in the European Union.
As far as the individual priorities are concerned, the most important task in the economic sphere was to deal with the effects of the global crisis and to continue implementing the European plan for economic recovery as one of the main instruments for restoring economic prosperity. We also passed muster concerning the measures adopted for stabilising the banking sector. The measures we adopted are effective. Through guarantees and recapitalisation, Member States provided the banks with potential support amounting to more than 30% of the European Union’s GDP. The compromise achieved over the EUR 5 billion package for projects in the area of energy and broadband internet and measures to verify the efficiency of the common agricultural policy provided a positive message from the spring European Council. The agreement over the contribution of EU Member States towards the EUR 75 billion loan for boosting International Monetary Fund resources was of key significance in terms of tackling the global economic crisis. Under the Czech Presidency, the EU, with strong support from the Commission, made a major contribution to the excellent preparations for and successful course of the G20 summit in London, which produced agreement over the major boost to IMF resources and over the resources disbursed through other international institutions to combat the effects of the global economic recession. The EU also gained a strong position at the summit thanks to the common conclusions adopted at the spring European Council. In this way it confirmed its ambition to be a strong global player. As I said earlier, all of the measures aimed at combating the crisis during the Czech Presidency must be viewed against the backdrop of the joint and unequivocal rejection of protectionism.
In the area of legislative measures, the Czech Presidency managed to achieve a consensus within the framework of the recovery plan over the possibility of applying reduced VAT rates for labour-intensive locally-provided services. This agreement makes a significant contribution towards maintaining employment in the most vulnerable sectors of the economy and should help small and medium-sized companies in particular. The changes to financial market regulation and market supervision represent a whole chapter in the effort to combat the current financial and economic crisis. During the Czech Presidency major progress was achieved in restoring confidence. We completed negotiations on all of the key legislative proposals which the Presidency established as its objectives. Chief among these was the Solvency II Directive for the areas of insurance, regulations for rating agencies and others. In the challenging debate on the regulation and supervision of financial markets, agreement was reached over the basic elements of reform, which should provide stability at the Member State level and at the level of individual financial institutions and their rules. The June European Council confirmed the direction taken by the Commission. The support voiced for the Commission’s plans should lead to concrete legislative proposals being drawn up and approved in the autumn of this year.
Energy policy, the second priority of the Czech Presidency, was severely tested in the very first days of the Presidency. At the same time, we saw that it is not always sensible to tackle the problems of energy crises on an ad hoc basis, since a crisis blows up every six months or so. We should rather adopt systematic measures so that the EU can be secure and resilient in terms of energy supplies. Under the Czech Presidency we took steps to boost energy security, focusing on activities that will increase diversification of energy sources and supply routes through the so-called southern corridor. The support for energy efficiency included in the revised regulations for the European Regional Development Fund also makes a significant contribution to energy security. It enables financial investments to be made in greater energy efficiency and in the use of renewable energy sources in residential buildings. This provides a link to the Swedish Presidency, which has energy efficiency as one of its key priorities. The continuity necessary to the work of the entire EU is again apparent here. Last, but by no means least, the March and June Councils confirmed in full that it would not be sensible to abandon our ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or for financing mitigation and adaptation measures in developing countries. At the same time, we established clear priorities and goals which must be fulfilled ahead of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December in order for the EU to defend its position as a leader in climate change.
The third priority – or if you will the third ‘E’ – of the Czech Presidency was about the EU in the world, and events demonstrate clearly how important it is for the EU to develop and pursue a common foreign policy. There was ample confirmation of this during the course of the Czech Presidency. While the EU succeeded in solving the gas crisis thanks to its unity, the second crisis from the start of the year, the crisis in Gaza, again showed that if the EU wants to be a truly global player it must learn to speak with one voice. Both of these crises occurred under the one Presidency, which goes to show that the issue of who is actually leading the EU does not matter so much as the unity of all twenty-seven Member States. The Czech Presidency succeeded in kicking off the Eastern Partnership project which is a continuation of the neighbourhood policy, this time in an eastward direction. The main foreign priority of the Czech Presidency was to continue the process of EU enlargement. This mainly involved a European perspective for the countries of the Western Balkans. Due to the situation in the region, the Presidency had limited room for manoeuvre. However, despite the suspension of accession talks with Croatia, progress was achieved in the process of visa liberalisation. I have presented a brief and matter-of-fact summary of the priorities of the Czech Presidency and their fulfilment. More detailed information is of course available and I am now available myself to respond to your questions and comments."@en1
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