Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-15-Speech-3-008-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120215.4.3-008-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, the Spring European Council is, as you know, the European Council’s annual rendezvous to discuss economic and social issues, and the next meetings of Heads of State or Government will be no exception. The European Council will seek to address the current economic crisis, notably, by providing guidance on Member States’ economic and employment policies, putting particular emphasis on accelerating structural reforms to increase competitiveness and create more jobs and on fully exploiting the potential of green growth.
The Mexican Presidency will organise preparatory ministerial meetings on foreign affairs, tourism, agriculture and labour. The EU position at the meeting will be thoroughly prepared in the coming months in the relevant Council formations in order to ensure a strong and coordinated EU position.
The UN Rio+20 conference: at this conference, it is an important priority for the Danish Presidency that we should promote a strengthened global institutional framework for sustainable development and advance work on global and coherent post-2015 goals for sustainable development.
The European Council is expected to underline its strong commitment to an ambitious outcome of the UN conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June of this year and stress the need for strong participation from the private sector and civil society. The Council will further develop the EU position on Rio+20 in order to ensure a strong European voice in Rio.
In accordance with the conclusions of the European Council in December 2011, the European Council will also take up the issue of status as candidate country for Serbia. As you are aware, the European Council, on 9 December 2011, noted that considerable progress has been made by Serbia towards fulfilling the political criteria. With a view to granting Serbia the status of candidate country, the European Council tasked the General Affairs Council to examine and confirm that Serbia has continued to show credible commitment and has achieved further progress in moving forward with the implementation, in good faith, of agreement reached in the dialogue, including on IBM, has reached an agreement on inclusive regional cooperation, and has actively cooperated to enable EULEX and KFOR to execute their mandates.
In the light of its examination, the General Affairs Council will take the decision on candidate status on 28 February, to be confirmed by the March European Council. I hope that a decision can be taken to give Serbia status as a candidate country but that will, of course, also require that Serbia has done what is necessary to live up to the criteria formulated in December.
Finally the European Council is expected to address foreign policy, probably with the focus on the Southern Neighbourhood and the Arab Spring.
However, let me stress that this is not to say that we are in a business-as-usual mode. Indeed, we cannot afford complacency. Because of the crisis, we need more than ever to make full use of our new tools – the European Semester and the ‘six-pack’. This is an important priority for the Danish Presidency and we will work in all relevant Council formations to ensure strict implementation of the new rules in order to ensure their credibility, but also to provide opportunity for anchoring this process at the level of Heads of State and Government.
The European Council will conclude the first phase of the European Semester on the basis of the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey and the discussions held in the different formations of the Council. It is the Presidency’s intention to summarise all these contributions in a synthesis report. Furthermore, the EPSCO and Ecofin Councils will adopt conclusions.
In this context, the European Council will identify the main challenges facing the EU and give strategic advice and guidance to Member States on the different policies. Let me recall that a number of orientations have already been set out at the informal European Council on 30 January regarding stimulating employment, especially for young people, completing the single market and boosting the financing of the economy, in particular, of the SMEs. Those measures requiring actions at the national level are to be duly reflected in Member States’ national reform programmes.
As regards measures to be taken at EU level, the Council will report back on the implementation in June. We expect the March European Council to assess the economic situation and express the EU’s determination to continue to take all necessary measures.
Regarding guidance to Member States on their national reform programmes and stability and convergence programmes, the European Council will discuss the implementation of the 2011 European Semester country-specific recommendations and commitments under the Euro Plus Pact. It will call on Member States to give priority to the areas identified in the Commission’s AGS and in the Council discussion on the European Semester and to reflect this in the NRPs and SCPs. The European Council will also call on the Member States taking part in the Euro Plus Pact to update their commitments and to make them more precise, time-limited, operational and measurable.
Regarding innovation and following up on the orientations set by the European Council, the Danish Presidency will prepare reports setting out progress achieved in this field. On that basis, we expect the European Council to stress the areas where more progress is required to unlock innovation potential, for instance, a single innovation indicator.
On the second issue on the agenda – international summits – the forthcoming G8, G20 and Rio+20 meetings will address issues important to the EU. The difficulty is, of course, that they will take place in June and the March European Council should therefore take stock of preparation and signal those issues of particular importance.
On the G20 and the G8, the Mexican Presidency has identified the following priorities for the summit: economic stabilisation and structural reforms as foundations for growth and employment; strengthening the financial system and fostering financial inclusion to promote economic growth; improving the international financial architecture in an interconnected world; enhancing food security and addressing commodity price volatility; promoting sustainable development, green growth and the fight against climate change."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples