Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-07-04-Speech-3-010-000"
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"en.20120704.3.3-010-000"2
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"Mr President, President Christofias, ladies and gentlemen, the Republic of Cyprus is taking over the Council presidency at a decisive moment for Europe. I said here, only yesterday in fact, that the European Council has held 30 meetings on the economic crisis and it is not over yet. Thirty meetings and only last week did we see the start of an action plan.
It is important for us to make progress over the next six months on various issues that are on the table and, President Christofias, we are counting on you. There are a lot of good things that you can do.
That is why I am calling this morning on the new Presidency to show courage and determination. I hope that this Presidency will convince its 26 partners to opt for an integrated Europe, a political Europe and, at last, a united and therefore sovereign Europe.
The economic crisis is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge relates to the competitiveness of our economy and to unemployment, which is breaking records with an average rate of 11%. The opportunity is to do what the countries in the euro area should have done at the outset, in other words implement a common economic policy, a policy of balanced budgets and, above all, a long-term investment policy.
President Christofias, although you and I are from radically opposed political parties, my group supports the priorities of your Presidency. In particular, I heard you use an expression that is very important to me: the Community method. In that respect, I know that I can count on you.
Like you, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) wants the European Union to be more effective, more relevant and more efficient and to experience renewed growth. On that basis, we need to act. We need to take advantage of the 20th anniversary of the single market in the autumn to complete, at last, the work that began under Jacques Delors and implement the Single Market Act as quickly as possible. We need to apply the Services Directive in full. We need to create a genuine digital single market. We also need to reduce the burden on our small and medium-sized enterprises. All of these measures will create growth and will thus create jobs. These are the measures that I am asking you, Mr President, to take along with this Parliament and in close cooperation with the Commission.
There is another key aspect of your Presidency: the negotiations on the multiannual financial framework. My group truly hopes that progress is made in this regard during the next six months, in the knowledge that the European budget is an investment budget, a growth budget and an employment budget. We need investment in all 27 Member States in infrastructure, investment in all 27 Member States in energy networks and in education, research and innovation, cohesion policies and food security; you spoke about food aid for the most deprived, I believe, and you also have my support in that regard. That is a credible and tangible response to the crisis, too.
The Cypriot Presidency will find in the European Parliament an active and committed participant when it comes to the financial perspective, as long as the proposed budget is large enough and tailored to our needs. We will be keeping an eye on that, but we will help you to reach the end of the year with a Christmas package for this budget for the multiannual financial framework.
Now, Mr President, President Christofias, ladies and gentlemen – do not laugh, Mr Barroso, the package will be good, you will see – I would like to talk about another issue before you here this morning and that is the worrying political situation that has prevailed for a number of days in one of our Member States, Romania. Yesterday the Vice-President of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, expressed grave concern. I quote: ‘I am seriously concerned about recent attacks on the independence of the Constitutional Court of Romania. For me, a well-functioning, independent judicial system is a precondition for mutual trust in the European area of justice’.
My group shares the Commission’s concerns and last week I, myself, expressed my concerns about the current state of democracy in Romania. This morning, I ask the Commission very sincerely to continue to monitor this issue as it has monitored others, in spite of the summer break."@en1
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