Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-015"
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"en.20070314.3.3-015"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we do not yet know the text of the Berlin Declaration, and so it makes sense to discuss not the text, but the context of this Declaration. Listening to the speeches by the President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Wallström and even Mr Daul or Mr Leinen, we can all tell that a degree of uncertainty surrounds this text, as expectations of it are very high. Why is this the case? Why are so many expectations vested in a text that may just be one among many? The answer is quite simple: because we all have the feeling that we are at a crossroads. European integration may continue as successfully as it has in the last 50 years, or we may take a different path leading away from European integration and into an uncertain future of renationalisation and the risks this entails.
We all have a feeling of uncertainty, and so this Berlin Declaration needs to do something that may be possible with a very short text, namely send out a message of hope, that what we have tackled successfully in the last 50 years will continue to be possible in future. One thing is certain, however, and that is that we shall no longer be able to content ourselves with describing the successes of the last 50 years. That is regrettable but true. I shall illustrate why I think this is regrettable with reference to the words of Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg. In his acceptance speech for the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen, he said that Adolf Hitler was as remote to his children as William II was to him. This is the danger. As history marches on, the risks increasingly fade: the risks of intolerance, hatred, ethnic exclusion, all the dangers of territorial aspirations that we believed had been overcome but have not been – they are all still there. They are even here in this House: those propagandists of this demon. Nevertheless, we must ask ourselves why the younger generation is not fighting as enthusiastically for the integration responsible for overcoming this hatred as is Joseph Daul. The reason is that it is history.
If we want to prevent history repeating itself we must say to the younger generation, in particular, that these are our achievements, and it is all right to make the demands they are making of us and to take peace for granted – but we need new methods if we are to guarantee it over the long term. Guaranteeing it over the long term will mean protecting the earth’s climate. If ever more areas of this earth become uninhabitable, there will be ever increasing migration flows, which will increasingly destabilise peace. In the past, securing peace meant integration. In the future, securing peace will mean reversing climate change. Social stability entails young people being safe in the knowledge that they have a real chance of finding decent work with a decent income, enabling them to live a decent life. The members of the younger generation are like the older in that they do not entertain hopes of becoming millionaires. Whilst that is a nice dream, what people really want is to be able to marry or cohabit in a long-term relationship and have children in the knowledge that they will grow up in peace and have social prospects as we do. They want Europe to offer them this in our globalised world.
There is a third thing they want, and that is education and qualifications, as we all know that whereas, in the past, securing a decent pension and decent health insurance were seen as essentials in life that needed to be safeguarded, the access to education and qualifications will take on this role in the future. If Europe wants to become the most competitive knowledge-based continent, it cannot succeed in this without well-educated people who undergo lifelong learning. Thus, education and qualifications become the building blocks of a secure social future. This means that what integration – territorial and geographic, economic and social – has been in the last 50 years, climate change, education, qualifications and decent work must be in the next 50. This can be summed up in a short text. The shorter and more concise the text, the easier it will be to convey the message. The success of the last 50 years came about in its own way; the success of the next 50 will require new methods. If, supported by the desire for integration of 27 countries, we succeed in expressing this in the Declaration, we shall be taking the right direction at the crossroads at which we are now standing."@en1
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