Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-19-Speech-2-011"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20101019.5.2-011"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, and when I say ‘ladies and gentlemen’, I include you, Baroness Ashton, Mr Šefčovič, your team and the Council Presidency, because, at the end of the day, we experienced collegial cooperation, without which we would surely not have achieved the result that we did.
I am happy with the result, at least as regards the part for which I was responsible and where I had a grasp of the overall picture. However, I would say that this is not so very surprising, because it is not as if we have only just started. Mr President, it was a very clever idea of yours to call all the rapporteurs together on a regular basis for an exchange of ideas right from an early stage – back at the time of the Brok, Verhofstadt and Gualtieri reports. As a result, for the relevant people, it was clear what would need to be done later, and for those who were to do this later work, it was clear what had already been done in terms of preparatory work. For this reason, it was primarily a matter of applying to the Staff Regulations the organisational aspects of what had been agreed between Parliament and the Council in connection with the establishment of the European External Action Service in the particular areas of competence covered by these Staff Regulations. When I say organisational, I mean that organisation is policy and policy is organisation. That is, of course, something that we found repeatedly during the detailed negotiations, because it was already clear at that point that perhaps one person may interpret something one way and others may interpret it somewhat differently. However, the spirit of cooperation resulted, I believe, in us finding very sensible solutions to such issues.
What did we actually need to do, then, in terms of policy adjustment and what did we need to lay down in the Staff Regulations? Firstly, we had to incorporate the equal treatment of the three staffing components. I want to mention this point because, as you know, the treaty states that the staff of the EEAS shall comprise officials from the Commission, the Council and from the diplomatic services of the Member States. The last of these elements, in particular, did pose something of an issue, as it was something new. We had to resolve the almost antagonistic contradiction between the Community approach and the intergovernmental approach. It goes without saying that the Council and the Member States take more of an intergovernmental approach, while we prefer the Community approach. I believe I can say that we then worked out a solution to this together. To that extent, then, we can be very satisfied.
What we needed, and indeed must continue, to take into account is gender balance and a balance in terms of geographical origin. We want to have a service that is modern, including with regard to the issue of gender equality. I am pleased, Baroness Ashton, that, in addition to what we have incorporated into the Staff Regulations as mandatory, you have assured us that you will make another personal statement, which will form part of the whole package. That already represents considerable progress with regard to both the aspect of gender equality and the other aspect of geographical balance.
We need equal rights and equal obligations, and that includes loyalty – and indeed from all three components – towards the institution of the High Representative, currently embodied by Baroness Ashton. In this regard, we had a bit of additional work to do as far as the veto right of the diplomatic services was concerned in connection with possible extensions to the contracts of staff coming from the diplomatic services. However, we resolved this, too.
There is one issue that should not be underestimated. We jointly agreed that this issue cannot be accommodated in the Staff Regulations. This is the fact that the new European diplomatic service also needs something of a separate identity. Everyone working there must be working towards the same goal and therefore, a common form of training and further training is also extremely important. That was especially important to some of my fellow negotiators, and I can understand that. I have just said that we did not succeed in doing this. It was clear that it would not be possible to incorporate something like this into the Staff Regulations systematically. However, here, once again, I have to thank the High Representative, because I have been informed that she also wants to say something about this and that she regards it as a major obligation and a major necessity and will also make another declaration of commitment in this regard, which, although not a component of the Staff Regulations, will reassure us and those who view it as particularly important as we look to the future work of the common External Action Service.
Bearing all that in mind, we have done a very good job, and the service is now set for a sound start on 1 December."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples