Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-01-18-Speech-2-082-000"
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"en.20110118.6.2-082-000"2
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"Mr President, I risk repetition. To be honest with you, this has been a somewhat uneventful debate, but also one that we can take pride in, and so I happily join my fellow Members’ chorus of praise for the Belgian Presidency. Yves, your team, your ministers, and also your political and diplomatic corps have done a fantastic job. I was able to experience this first-hand. I have had the joy and pleasure of participating in two trialogues on the environment and – no, you must not let this go to your head, though this time you
receive a little praise – here I wish to compliment you on the intelligent way in which you have discharged the Presidency.
However, I have a major and a minor ‘but’ to add to those words of praise. My first ‘but’ has to do with social policy; in my opinion, we have made progress on a number of social dossiers. Nevertheless, we have to be honest and say – and I am not laying this at the Belgian Presidency’s door, but at that of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion – that European interest in these issues is not great. We have not made any real progress in legislative matters, when it comes to the European minimum income, for instance, and thus there is still a lot of work to be done.
My second ‘but’ has to do with the role which the Belgian Presidency has played in the post-Lisbon period. I have received congratulations from Messrs Verhofstadt and Dehaene, two former prime ministers who are exceptionally knowledgeable about institutional matters. There is, however, a downside to that role, especially the Belgian Presidency’s lack of political leadership on some really critical dossiers. There was some sitting back and doing nothing and Mr Van Rompuy ought to have taken the lead on this matter.
I am referring to the debate on economic governance and to the debate on the debt crisis in the European Union. Other Heads of Government – not to mention Prime Minister Merkel and President Sarkozy
take on these issues. This, in my view, led to limited results at the last Council, because of the debt crisis, amongst other reasons. In the past, the Belgian Presidency did assume political leadership and I would hope that the next government will indeed assume that leadership of the European Union."@en1
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