Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-14-Speech-2-163"
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"en.20000314.9.2-163"2
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"I should like to answer a number of you collectively, particularly on what we might term the tax package. Mr Leinen discussed this, as did Mr Baltas and, just now, Mrs Van Lancker.
Let me make one preliminary remark. The purpose of this speech is not, let me repeat, to foreshadow the conditions for the execution of the Commission’s work programme. In order to facilitate the task of reforming the institutions, we wish to distinguish the everyday administration of policies (the normal work of the Commission, and we have regular meetings on the subject) from the reform in the context of the accession of thirteen new Member States.
Obviously, the Monti package is related to the proper operation of the internal market. This is why Mr Monti, a few months ago, and now my fellow Commissioner, Frits Bolkestein, continue to make it a political priority. I hope that all these efforts will produce a result before the conclusion of this IGC, before the ratification which will follow the Treaty of Nice, and that we shall have this tax package at our disposal, in the interest of the proper operation of the internal market, before any amendments to the Treaty may be ratified.
Mrs Thorning-Schmidt and a number of you, including Mrs Van Lancker, mentioned the social matters which are extremely important, particularly with regard to third country nationals. We do wish to include them as beneficiaries of social policy (Articles 42 and 137, which are to be subject to qualified majority voting).
Once again, regardless of ideological considerations, we have reordered the paragraphs of the new Article 137 in order to subject to qualified majority voting everything which affects, from our objective point of view, the proper operation of the internal market: social security and protection of workers, worker protection in the event of cancellation of the work contract, collective representation and defence of the interests of workers, including codetermination, working conditions for third country nationals legally resident on Community territory, and financial contributions for the promotion of employment and job creation without prejudice to the terms of the Social Fund.
The recent history of the development of the European Union shows that, in Maastricht, we were aware that creating the single currency would require improved coordination of social measures at European level, but, at the time, we had not yet achieved it. In Amsterdam, as I remember specifically, since I was one of the negotiators of the Treaty almost up to the end, we expanded the definition of the objectives of social policy within the Treaty and the Community was granted its own areas of competence, complementary to those of the Member States. In Nice, prior to the great enlargement, I would ask you, please, to see this text as anticipating events. As we exist right now, we could continue to operate more or less and to live together, but that is not what it is all about. We should form a Community, and I do not feel that we can subsequently come back to this sensitive issue if we do not resolve it now. As I said, we must form a Community of 27 or 28 Member States, despite the much greater disparities. We wish to ensure that the Community has effective means to support this restructuring at Community level. We therefore propose that it should be possible to adopt these minimum requirements by qualified majority vote, and not by unanimity, in all the areas I have mentioned.
Finally, I should like to tell Mr Jonckheer that, for all sorts of reasons, I absolutely agree with him on the matter of citizenship. I should like to assure him that, with regard to tax provisions in matters of the environment (many of which are directly connected with the operation of the internal market in addition to citizens’ welfare and quality of life), we are well aware that these issues entail the risk of distortions of competition, which would moreover be exacerbated by enlargement, and we therefore propose that in fact all measures for taxation in matters of the environment should be decided by qualified majority.
I am aware that my answers are necessarily incomplete given the time available. Mr Bolkestein, Mrs Diamantopoulou and myself will have the opportunity to address you again in future. We wish to initiate this debate, and to fuel and feed it on the basis of these proposals, as I undertook, in order to facilitate to some extent, the difficult negotiations within the Intergovernmental Conference. But, in the final analysis, as we all know, what we need is the political will."@en1
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