Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-11-Speech-1-032-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120611.18.1-032-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the new French President, François Hollande, is right: the European Union needs jobs and growth. Youth unemployment is at record levels and economic growth has barely reached 1.5%. International trade is turning into a key growth factor in response to the needs of the European Union’s shrinking internal market. Europe needs bigger markets where European producers can export our products. It needs cheaper products for European importers and consumers, as well as opportunities for more profitable investments to become available and be given to European companies.
This is why it is vitally important that the European Union’s trade policy is targeted at those countries where European business can gain the most. The agreements with Colombia, Peru and Central America cannot revitalise the EU’s stuttering economy. What the EU really needs are free trade agreements, both with the large newly emerging economies, such as India and Brazil, and with the global economic giants like the US and Japan.
This is why I too, representing the Liberals in Parliament, support the opportunity for potentially opening the negotiations on a free trade agreement with Japan. I believe that Europe must not miss the moment to strengthen its contacts with Japan across the board, including its economic relations with the world’s third largest economy.
The opportunity to overcome the biggest obstacles hampering deeper relations between the European Union and Japan relating to the removal of the non-tariff barriers in important European business sectors (and which my colleagues mentioned: car manufacturing and electronics), the reduction in tariffs and progress on public procurement will generate billions of euro in profits for European firms and will create new jobs which European citizens desperately need.
We must take this step before it is far too late, and before Japan decides that it is no longer worth waiting and heads east towards the United States and the countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
I obviously understand that some colleagues and Member States are distrustful of Japan, still unable to meet all the commitments it has made, which have been outlined in the scoping exercise for the negotiations. However, I firmly believe that this distrust is more the result of pessimism and conservatism. Of course we must not be naive. At the same time, however, we must not forget that initiating negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Union and Japan does not mean, as Commissioner De Gucht also emphasised, that these negotiations need to be concluded at any price.
This is also why I think that the Commission needs to be given a mandate now to initiate negotiations on a free trade agreement, with the clear insistence, however, that, if Japan fails to meet its commitments in the car sector and, most of all, on public procurement, we will be obliged to halt these negotiations or review our position towards them continuing in the future.
However, if the European Union waited now, if it waits again and again after this, and continues waiting, I think that we will squander one of the biggest opportunities in our trade policy. This is why I am actually making an appeal to my colleagues. I do support the view that Parliament should have its say before giving a mandate, but we must not be so conservative and we need to give growth in Europe a chance."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples