Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-04-05-Speech-2-051-000"
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"en.20110405.3.2-051-000"2
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"Madam President, the European Council has adopted a series of measures covering governance, budgetary rationalisation, competitiveness and so on and I must say that they are all along the right lines.
The European Council’s 16 points are largely due to the work of President Van Rompuy and President Barroso, to whom I first of all offer my congratulations, because I do value – some of us do value – what you have done as leaders of the institutions.
However, the problem is that not only are we going through a financial crisis, we are also experiencing a crisis of confidence and a political crisis in Europe and in the European nations. The problem is not simply one of assessing the actual economic and technical contents of the European Council. At the same time as there are meetings of the European Council, European, national and regional elections are being held and all of these confirm our apprehensions. Extreme positions are being adopted. Some of these positions are currently taking refuge in forms of nationalism. Therefore, you must be very well aware that our problem is not simply to face up to the crisis, but to face up to the political and social consequences of that crisis.
It is not simply a time when there is, as a fellow Member quite rightly said, a north-south crisis in the European Union. These are new times and a particular feature of new times is that crises mount up and proliferate and are not resolved. They turn up unexpectedly, both inside and outside the EU. Moreover, these new times basically demand new ways of thinking at both individual and institutional levels, and that is the major political challenge that faces us.
Any change in one’s personal way of thinking starts with that person him or herself. First of all, if that person is a Member of this House, he or she must say in what ways Parliament must change if it is to deal with new times. The same goes for members of the Commission and the Council; each and every one of us must be able to face up to this issue.
However, in any case, the main thing is not to go off course, because you are heading in the right direction."@en1
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