Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-056"
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"en.20031008.7.3-056"2
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"Mr President, President of the Commission, President-in-Office of the Council, in a few days time in Brussels there will be discussions on reviving the economy, and I am concerned that they will end up reopening the debate on the Stability Pact, on whether it takes the right line, that there will end up being a debate between States that are asking to be able to spend more and to be able to increase their deficit beyond the commitments made in the Pact itself. I fear that – sadly, once again – there will be no discussion as to what the European Union and the European Institutions could do to encourage and to contribute to the EU’s economic growth.
Mr Prodi, a little more than a year ago, you commissioned a high-level group of experts to carry out a study on an agenda for a Europe with an expanding economy. This study made some very specific, very thorough and very important recommendations on what the European Union could do to contribute to growth, first and foremost by re-orientating its own internal budget, that of the European institutions: in fact, we also need to question the approach taken by the European budget, to ask to what extent it helps economic growth. This group of experts, then – the committee chaired by André Sapir – made an extremely clear proposal: re-direct the European institutions’ budget, the 1.25% of European GDP, which is only a small amount but is being put to very poor use and does not serve to contribute towards European growth.
The recommendation was quite clear: a major political decision has to be made, and this decision involves removing the burden of the common agricultural policy, which takes up and accounts for almost half of our funds, from the European budget. The funds that would be freed up by merely rethinking agricultural policy and agricultural protection, which has such a negative impact on the image of Europe abroad, could – thanks, not least, to the leverage effect – help give an enormous boost to economic research and to technological innovation, which needs to be financed by large-scale saving which only Brussels can provide. These same resources could also be used to boost the implementation of the infamous European networks to better connect markets.
All this could be done, but it is not being done. I believe that, at European level, we need, first and foremost, to reassess our budget and our agricultural policy, otherwise, it will become increasingly pointless to pontificate about the Lisbon objectives.
One final thought, Mr President: immigration will be discussed. This is a good thing and I hope that a clear signal will be given to European citizens that immigrants are and can be an asset to economic growth rather than a problem."@en1
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