Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-20-Speech-3-058"
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"en.20020320.5.3-058"2
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".
Thank you, Mr President. I really have nothing to add to what the President-in-Office of the Council said in his first speech, particularly given that the majority of the Members that have asked me questions are not present. In any case I would like to applaud the professionalism of the Presidents of the Parliamentary groups of the People’s Party and the Socialist Party, who at least are present.
In any event, I would like to thank all those who have taken a positive view of the effort that the Spanish Presidency made in Barcelona, and say to those who expressed disappointment that it is logical and in the nature of things that the Presidency of the Union should be ambitious in setting these challenges, and it is also logical that not all the ambitions are realised, because that is part of the everyday life of the Union and has been since 1955. We are not going to create a new Union right now. There is always an ambition to reach goals and then usually we have to make compromises, just as you have to do in Parliament, which does not achieve its ambitions all the time either.
I would therefore say that in this effort to adapt our ambitions to the realities of life and of political necessities, I think that it can be said that the results of Barcelona have been extraordinarily positive.
There have also been those who have highlighted certain elements while ignoring others, who are not aware of the true essence of the Lisbon Strategy, because the Lisbon Strategy provides a good balance between reform and economic liberalisation, social cohesion, the needs of education and research and sustainable development. We cannot go further on some matters than on others. We need coordinated progress, and I think that there has been coordinated progress, because in all the areas that we have dealt with there has been positive and substantial progress that can be measured, and this is reflected in the conclusions. Specifically, I have heard the repeated criticism that sustainable development has not been sufficiently reflected. It surprises me that it should be said here that it is not enough that for the first time the Union has said that it wishes to, and formally undertakes to, ratify the Kyoto Protocol and that at the same time it has reached an agreement on development aid in Monterrey, which I think are two very important matters. I think that this is much more than anyone could have expected.
The reason that Johannesburg was not mentioned more is that the Barcelona European Council cannot discuss Johannesburg further until the preparations for it begin in the United Nations. We will discuss Johannesburg in detail in Seville, which is where the mandate will clearly be given in order for the Union to have a common position. What there is in Barcelona at present is therefore sufficient and desirable.
Also, I would like to remind those who expressed their opinions on the demonstrators, attaching more importance to the demonstrators in the street than to the remainder of the European Council, and saying that they represent civil society, that, although those demonstrators are indeed European citizens, behind the European Council there are also many millions of silent citizens who voted for the parties represented by the governments that are there, sitting on the European Council, and that they are the true civil society. That is the true civil society. I do not wish to take away any legitimacy from those who demonstrate on the streets, but neither should we take away legitimacy from those who, through their political parties, support the governments who make the decisions.
I think that many of those who attach so much importance to those who demonstrate on the street have not learned the major lesson that European citizens taught to all of Europe when it came to accepting the euro. They are the same people who said that people did not want anything to do with Europe or the euro, and so within a fortnight all European citizens accepted the euro, spontaneously and entirely voluntarily.
I therefore think that we need to learn a great deal from this about what people on the street think, and not think that it is only those who demonstrate, in what is a more than festive atmosphere, on the occasion of a European Council, who have democratic legitimacy in the Union, because that is not the case. I would like to conclude by clearly expressing the Presidency’s astonishment at the statement made by the representative of Herri Batasuna condemning the murder of an Italian politician by the Red Brigade terrorist group, while he has never protested about the numerous victims murdered by the terrorist group ETA, for which his party provides a political cover."@en1
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