Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-015"
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"en.20100907.4.2-015"2
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"Mr President, the State of the Union means, first of all, looking back and learning the lessons of the past, and then looking to the future. Let us be honest with ourselves and say that last year was a very difficult year for the Union.
It is crystal clear that if we want the Stability and Growth Pact and the new economic strategy to be a success, we need a serious carrot and stick approach, with proper sanctions.
In my opinion – and I think in the opinion of the majority of this House – it is good that the Council is thinking about this in connection with a task force, but that cannot replace the right of initiative of the Commission, and the duty of the Commission to come forward as fast as possible with a global legislative proposal on economic governance.
I am pleased that you have announced that you will do this on 29 September. What happens in the Council as well is not important. It is your task and it is your duty to do this on 29 September.
That takes me to my third priority: the single market. We have an excellent report on this by Mario Monti, and our message is very simple: let us act on this report. Because it is incomprehensible, for example, that today it still takes more than 40 hours to travel by train from central and eastern European countries to Brussels, Paris or Amsterdam. How are these people supposed to feel connected to the European Union? How can these markets be fully integrated? Let us invest in trans-European networks.
The fourth important priority, and maybe the most important message for today, concerns the budget and the new financial framework. Let us be very clear about this. The aim of some national governments to reduce the budget by 20% or 30% is ridiculous at a time when what is needed is more European solutions.
I can fully understand that, when confronted with a huge fiscal deficit, they want to cut their direct contributions to the Union. That is a normal, spontaneous reaction. Hence, our proposal to replace these national contributions with European own resources.
That takes me to the fifth priority: our credibility in the world. We have the External Action Service, but what we need now, and what we have asked Lady Ashton, the Vice-President of the Commission (it would be better if she were here), is also to develop a new strategy for the Union. Our external policy strategy is still based on a paper by Javier Solana dating from 2003. The world has changed since 2003, and our strategic framework should also be adapted and modernised.
It was a difficult year for the Union because there were big problems, but little unity to solve those problems. Greece was on the brink of collapse, the euro itself was under attack for months, and it took several months for the European governments to finally agree to save a Member State and to save our common currency. It is therefore no surprise to me, nor, I think, to others here in Parliament, that public confidence in Europe has dropped dramatically.
That brings me to climate change. In Copenhagen, we lost our leadership role, and the only way to make a difference in Cancún is to regain that leadership. To regain our leadership, one thing is necessary: to use one voice and promote one vision, and not 27 as we did in Copenhagen.
Finally, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I must say that I am confused in relation to what is fundamentally – if you will allow me to use this word – the
of our Union, namely, the protection of civil liberties and human rights, outside the Union, of course, but, more important still, within the European Union as well.
I must therefore say, in all solemnity, that what is happening in France is, in my opinion, unacceptable.
Unfortunately, however, this is not an isolated case. Like many of you, I notice that several governments today, in facing the economic crisis, are succumbing more and more to the temptation, as it were, of populism, xenophobia and sometimes even racism.
They are exploiting people’s worries and the fear of the other. They are stigmatising minorities. I would even say that they are using dubious methods to confuse issues when it comes to migration. I would like to say most emphatically that I find this attitude to be incompatible with the principles and values that make our Union one of the most beautiful and one of the greatest political ideas to which the human spirit and heart have given birth.
Mr President, I intend to say it emphatically: the Roma are European citizens, fully-fledged citizens.
You can see this in the latest Eurobarometer, which shows that less than half of our citizens think that their country’s membership is a good thing. Trust in our institutions dropped last year to 42%. This is the State of the Union today. That is alarming but, at the same time, we have to recognise that it is not surprising. Parliament urged European leaders many times to end the standstill on Europe, to move forward, to quit protectionism and nationalism and to work on European solutions.
We can never accept their rights being violated – never – in a world racked with all manner of uncertainties. I believe that this Europe must remain a continent of freedom, tolerance and justice. Mr President, the Commission, the guardian of the treaties, must react uncompromisingly. This is not just its right; it is an institutional duty.
That is also what the European citizens are asking for because, if you look at the same Eurobarometer, you see that no less than 86% of the public want European economic governance. They believe that only the Union can provide solutions to the financial and economic crisis. However, they do not see this happening today, and that is the reason for their disappointment in our Union.
I know that for the Commission, too, it has been a difficult year, because in fact, it has only been half a year. That is how long it has taken our capitals to realise that there is a new treaty and a new way of working, and also a new balance of power in the Union. We can therefore say that today is the real start of the President of the Commission’s second term.
It is a second term that needs a new vision and also new answers. It is, in any case, time to change into a higher gear, and to realise important reforms now. From the point of view of our group, there are principally seven big, important reforms.
The first thing to do is to finalise our response to the financial crisis. We have already produced legislation on capital requirements and on bonuses. We have the stress test, and last week we also reached an agreement on financial supervision, which is a good agreement, not least because leadership by the President of the European Central Bank guarantees a European approach to supervision.
However, that does not mean that we are already there. Far from it, I should say. We are not even half way. We still need the Commission to come forward urgently with proposals on derivatives, on short-selling, on credit rating agencies, on banking resolution, on market abuse, on trading and on financial instruments.
The second big task is that we need genuine European economic governance. Last year showed that a common currency without a common economic policy simply does not make sense. That is a nonsensical situation – even worse, it is a dangerous situation. We cannot afford to be one Union and, at the same time, to have 27 different economic strategies, as we do today."@en1
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