Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-063"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060322.11.3-063"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, if we are talking about the Commission’s strategic programme, we must also ask what role the Commission itself will play in putting that strategic planning into effect. That is what I want to speak about.
We are all in broad agreement, Mr Barroso, about the content of what you have said and what you have presented in writing. A revised Lisbon Strategy? Of course! Defining Europe’s role in the globalised world as regards migration? Fine! A key challenge! Improving Europe’s energy supply, greater energy efficiency, greater energy security? Unity throughout the House! Promoting technology, investing in the technologies of the future to preserve and enhance Europe’s global competitiveness as a knowledge-based continent? Agreed! Strengthening internal security and expanding Europe’s role in international security? Agreed! Wonderful! Great! We will hear many more speakers today saying, ‘this is just what we need! Mr Barroso is right, that is the way forward!’
What we have not been given, however, is a Financial Perspective to match, that is the necessary resources to achieve that. We haggle with the Council – Mrs Grossetête is right there – for a billion more or less. The bold approach which you and your Commissioners pushed for when presenting your Financial Perspective, Mr Barroso, was cut by EUR 200 billion in the European Council. You asked for EUR 1 022 billion for seven years, the Council decided on EUR 840 billion.
I wondered what happened to Mr Barroso’s strategic outcry against such incorrect financial policy. You told this Parliament you would fight for these strategic objectives with this financial allocation. And then you told Parliament the Council’s decision was a success. There is nothing else you can do, I understand that, because you will not get any more money, at least not unless we fight a bit more for it. As Commission President, you have to live with the stupidity of the Heads of State or Government. My criticism is therefore directed not so much at you and your Commission as at the partners on the other side.
We will not achieve these strategic objectives if we define the objectives without making the necessary resources available to the institutions that have to act. That is certain! That is why I am saying that the Commission’s strategic objectives are the right ones, but you must also argue the matter with the individual States! As President of the Commission you must call a spade a spade! In every single case, you and your Commissioners must go and say that we cannot announce we are going to give Europol more power, that we can fight terrorism and crime more efficiently at European level – incidentally, the joint fight against crime and greater internal security are the European matters getting the highest rate of approval from Europe’s citizens – and then have the Council cut the appropriations by EUR 7.8 billion – and that three days before adopting the additional programme for Europol that sounds so good in the newspaper.
Your strategic objectives are the right ones. But the Commission must take up the cudgels with those Heads of State or Government, with those ministers and councils of ministers, that are not willing to pay the price on Monday for the speeches they made on Sunday. I expect the Commission to do that. You can expect us to support your strategic objectives – you have named the right strategic objectives – but we expect you to stand at our side in our battle, as Parliament, with the Heads of State or Government for a little more credibility for European policy.
If we agree this together for 2007, it will be an exciting year and I am sure a successful one for the European institutions."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples