Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-20-Speech-2-015"
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"en.20060620.6.2-015"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, in his first sentence, the President of the European Council stated that it was, and is, his intention to promote trust – and that is the most important thing within the European Union: promoting trust. Our continent is a complex one, and unless we succeed in bringing the various participants together through trust, this continent does not have a future. I would, then, especially like to thank you, Chancellor Schüssel, for making a success of promoting this sense of trust between our institutions and also between our citizens. Our task is to listen, then understand, bring individuals together and then act together.
I will never forget the meeting that we, the chairmen of the parliamentary groups, had with you last December in Vienna. At that time, we informed you of the preconditions under which we, as a Parliament, would be able to give our consent to the financial perspective. We said that we could not agree to what had been decided by the Heads of State or Government, but that we instead wanted to do something to bring together young people, in particular. We wanted more transparency and more control over expenditure, and all of this was achieved by means of the Interinstitutional Agreement. It was due to us being so candid with you, and due to you listening to us because you understood our conviction, that we were able to come to an agreement in the end. For this reason, I would like to express my sincere thanks to you, while also thanking the Commission and its President, Mr Barroso, for their support.
As regards the Services Directive, we also take some pride in the fact that we, as a Parliament, not only succeeded in bringing about a decent compromise, but also in using this as a basis for the Council of Ministers’ decision. Mr Bartenstein, it was a sensible decision to invite members of the European Parliament to your informal meeting of ministers, thereby facilitating an exchange of views.
The constitution has now been mentioned. Our Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats always believed that we needed this treaty. If we have objected from the outset to declaring this constitution as being dead in the water, this has been because it has to form the starting point for a final solution. This not only concerns Germany and France, but also the presidencies of Finland, Portugal and Slovenia. Everything is connected. If a link in this chain breaks, there will be nothing for the big countries to work on either and, consequently, the work of Portugal, Finland and Slovenia is just as important as that of Germany and France, from which, naturally, we expect something special. We would like a result by the time of the European elections in 2009.
There has also been frequent mention of 25 March 2007. We need joint action and I would particularly like to express my thanks to Commission President Barroso. At this point, I would like to propose that we appoint a political working group made up of a representative from the European Parliament, a representative from the Council and a representative from the Commission, so that we can decide jointly on how the days in the run-up to 25 March, and after it, are to be organised and planned. This is because there will not just be a summit taking place in Berlin involving the Commission and Parliament, but also, without doubt, something else happening in Rome. Above all, we have to work together on preparing the declaration, which will be a model for Europe’s future, and it is for this reason that I am proposing this working group at a political level.
Chancellor Schüssel, tomorrow, or even this evening, you will have a meeting with the American President, together with the President of the Commission. We should make it clear that Europe is America’s friend and partner. We must achieve a result in the Middle East. We have confidence in the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Olmert, and in the Palestinian President, Mr Mahmud Abbas. The peace process is needed there and it should be set in motion together with our American friends. However, because we are America’s friend, you must also be very resolute – and in this you have the support of our Group – and make plain your views on Guantanamo – which we believe to be incompatible with the principles of law, so you can tell our American friends that too.
We must look to the future. While I very much welcome President Bush’s visit to Hungary in memory of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, we must also keep one eye on the present. I have just met Belarus’s opposition leader, Mr Alexander Milinkevich. In our meetings with the Americans, but also within the European Union, we should make it clear that we support democracy in Belarus, home of Europe’s last dictator, and that we are opposed to questioning the country’s independence. If there is to be a referendum today on an affiliation or union with Russia, we say ‘No’ to such a referendum, because the result under a dictator is already a foregone conclusion. If we want democracy in Belarus, then democratic parties first need to build a democratic state, and we can take it from there. We should also do everything possible – including through the media – to support democracy and civil society in Belarus.
Now to my final remark. I was the long-suffering leader of the parliamentary party back in 2000 when the issue was raised of how to deal with Austria. As the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, we always believed in the Austrian Government, and in its Federal Chancellor, Mr Wolfgang Schüssel, in particular. This trust has now been justified and I hope that those individuals who were critics at the time are now big enough to say ‘thank you’ and show their appreciation for Mr Wolfgang Schüssel and the Austrian Government."@en1
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