Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-23-Speech-2-495"
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"Mr President, I would like to thank all the honourable Members for their positive and kind words concerning the Commission’s work programme.
Concerning the importance of the social dimension of the European single market, I absolutely agree with you. We learned the lessons of the past and we will be coming with proposals on posted workers, on a time directive and also on the services of general interest, which would reflect this very important social dimension, because we know that the single market will work only when it is embraced by the citizens. Therefore, we need to include this very solid social impact assessment in the proposals we make so we know that the proposals we will be bringing to citizens will be accepted and supported by them.
Ms Tzavela made a very passionate plea related to the potential brain drain, that we are losing young well-educated Europeans who go to work elsewhere outside the European Union. Sometimes it is because of remaining barriers on the labour market in Europe, sometimes it is because of a lack of information, but often it is also because our education does not match the needs of European businesses. Therefore, I am very glad that in a few moments, you will start the discussion on the new flagship initiative.
I see that my colleagues, Commissioner Vassiliou and Commissioner Andor, are here. They will explain how we would like to do it better, how to match the skills with the needs in such a way that young people will not be unemployed but will bring their potential to the European economy, and we will all benefit from that.
Several of you highlighted the importance of the regulation of financial markets and the importance of fast decision making and how we should achieve it. We have already highlighted that, in future, we need to progress with better coordination between Parliament, the Commission and the Council. We would like to do it in a new form of Union programming, where we will decide on the priorities, the timing and the deadlines, so we can deliver the results faster and can accelerate the legislative process even at a faster pace than today.
I can assure you that, as regards the multiannual financial framework, we will do our utmost to bring an ambitious project to you. We need your help in explaining at all levels – to the media, to national audiences – the proportions of this debate, how much we in Europe can achieve with just 1% of GDP, the structure of the European budget with almost 95% of this budget going back to national economies with high value-added from the European Union. This debate must also be taken to the national capitals and we need to talk to citizens, to inform them about how this budget is structured so we can gain strong support for our ambitious proposals.
Elmar Brok referred to very important areas in external relations – the Eastern Partnership, the enlargement process – where we also need to work for credibility on both sides. We must be very credible in how we negotiate and monitor the criteria that are fulfilled by the candidate countries, but we must also be credible in what we are offering to candidates so that we have trust built on both sides.
The United States is a very important partner and, if we manage to get rid of some of the barriers to mutual trade, it would be enormously beneficial and I agree that we need to invest more effort in this area.
On trade, you know that Europe is ready to negotiate and is ready to move, but we need partners. We cannot just forge agreements when we are not sure that they will be equally matched by the other side. But I agree that we need to be tackling this issue all the time, coming up with proposals and looking for new openings, because global trade will definitely benefit the global economy and this is what most of the world economy needs at this moment.
Lastly, on freedom, security and justice, we are fully aware that this is one of the areas of major interest and concern for our citizens and this is why we devoted such a large proportion of our programme to this area. I am sure that my colleagues, Mrs Malmström and Mrs Reding, will pay attention to how to tackle all these concerns, which have been raised both in this debate and in the structural dialogue they had with their respective committees.
If you look through your interventions, you will see that there is a considerable convergence in the goals we would like to achieve together. I think it is because the Commission’s work programme was, to a great extent, our joint endeavour. The structural dialogue we introduced this year, the intense communication between the committees and the Commissioners really paid off. We ended up with a Commission work programme that contains the converging aims between Parliament and the Commission.
Several of you highlighted the importance of focusing on appropriate implementation, so that our programmes and proposals would not simply stay on paper. I absolutely understand this request and, therefore, we also included in the Commission’s work programme monitoring of the ongoing work. I will be very happy to come to Parliament on a regular basis and to brief you on how we are progressing and implementing the Commission’s work programme so we can have a debate, not just once a year but on a regular basis, about how we are progressing with the fulfilment of the Commission’s work programme.
So far this year, out of the 34 initiatives we promised for this year, we will definitely fulfil 30. This is relatively good progress but, of course, we will be ready to discuss this issue further with you and to keep you informed on a regular basis.
I am also very glad that you urge us to do more, not less, with some exceptions. This is, of course, a very welcome tendency from Parliament towards the Commission. I agree with all of you who say that we need to do better. We have not only to perform well to fulfil our goals, but we need to show that with high quality work, we can use the result as the best counter-argument and best instrument to tackle Euroscepticism in Europe and the ghosts of the past, which always emerge when we face tough times: protectionism, racism, xenophobia and many of the phenomena you have just described here. With good work and good cooperation, we can tackle these ghosts of the past.
It is true that we need a lot of investment in infrastructure, but we are also absolutely sure that we need modern infrastructure. If we want to compete on a global level and to preserve our competitive edge, it is very clear that we need to upgrade our infrastructure. It is not only important for our economic goals, but it is also important for the greening of our economies and for resource-efficient economies to be developed. For that, we need to use, more than ever, the project-oriented EU bonds, we need to engage more with the EIB and we need to find ways to use public-private partnerships more in the future. You will also find this in our programme.
Regarding the single market, I welcome all the remarks and the focus on the single market, because this is really the EU’s main crown jewel. We have achieved a lot with the single market and we know that we can achieve even more if we can release the potential of the single market. We need to get rid of the barriers to the single market that still remain, we need to get rid of bottlenecks and we need to use the new areas of the economy. Some of you referred to the digital economy and how much we could improve life in Europe if we used more e-services, e-government or e-commerce, and these are new areas in which we have to engage more.
Mario Monti presented an excellent report and Michel Barnier used this report as a basis for our range of proposals. We started the debate on how to make the European single market better, more open and more competitive, so that it brings us even better results than we have today. So let us participate and look at which of the proposals Michel Barnier put on the table could be the most important ones and which proposals should have higher priority. I believe that together, we will achieve a better and stronger single market.
Regarding the administrative burden, as you know, Günter Verheugen included in the programme a reduction in the administrative burden by 25% before 2012. I am very happy to tell you that the Commission is working very hard so that this limit will be passed. Now, we are aiming to reach the level of 30%, but we also need to be very clear that it is not only the Commission that can deliver results. Very often, the administrative burden increases at national level when they are implementing European legislation with different kinds of strings attached. We need to work on this issue from both levels, from a European level and also from a national level."@en1
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