Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-11-Speech-3-014"
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"en.20070711.4.3-014"2
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"Mr President, President-in-Office, the programme that you have presented combines clear goals with ample ambition. Success is not immanent, but Liberals and Democrats have high hopes of a European Union double act under the two Josés. Indeed, you appear to compete for the laurels of economic liberalism. As Britain’s newspaper the Daily Mirror might say, ‘It’s the only way, José!’
From a school on the Sagres peninsula, your country gained world repute as a nation of navigators. As President-in-Office, you will need those skills to navigate through the treacherous waters of Council negotiations.
We wish you good luck and fair winds.
Who, if not you two, could convince Europe’s governments of the beauty of Lisbon and the importance of its agenda? Put the ‘is on’ back into ‘Lisbon’ – the need to consolidate public finances, the commitment to financial discipline and debt management, the drive to complete and strengthen the single market. Yes, even in the face of populist opposition in your own parties. It is not just in Asia that the free market has lifted millions out of poverty – it has done the same for 50 million people in the EU in the last 10 years alone. Most importantly, there is a need for sustainable economic recovery in Europe to be built on job creation rather than on rigging the rate of exchange to ratchet up export-driven growth. Therefore, my group particularly welcomes your initiative to open the discussion on flexicurity. We have to modernise social protection and benefit systems to face the challenges of a global market. Let us protect workers, not uncompetitive jobs. Our social safety net should protect not failing businesses but rather those in them, helping them to find new employment opportunities. The only European social model that matters to me is the one that preserves our prosperity by preparing our people for the future.
And, yes, if we talk about the future, let us not forget the fight against climate change. Let us look at how we can merge the Gothenburg and Lisbon Agendas and use innovation in green technologies to help us be more innovative, create more jobs and lead the world in setting the climate change agenda.
President-in-Office, you are right to place an emphasis on Africa – discovered, exploited and then abandoned by Europeans. The fact that you have called the first EU-Africa summit in seven years says it all. It has been the forgotten continent for far too long. Africa needs Europe, and Europe needs Africa if we are to deal successfully with migration, disease and climate change.
China offers money for natural resources and weapons for money. That is the road of 21st century economic colonialism and it is the wrong way forward for Africa. But Europe must avoid talk of the dimensions of empire. Let us learn from the past and forge a new and generous partnership.
In justice and home affairs, we appreciate the fact that your Presidency will focus on a series of measures strengthening the area of justice in the European Union. After the revealing comments by Germany’s Interior Minister, Mr Schäuble, my group will be on the guard against the erosion of civil liberties that underpin our society.
We want to see the framework decision on procedural safeguards agreed in the Council as a necessary accompanying measure to the European arrest warrant. And we caution against a response to terrorism which changes the nature of our society by fettering the freedoms for which you fought in the Carnation Revolution.
Two weeks ago, this House applauded the Council for agreement on a mandate for the IGC, but last week we learned from some of your colleagues in the Council that they were hollow words. Well, that was rather an ephemeral victory. I believe I speak not only for my group but for many colleagues in this House when I urge that the package agreed at the June Summit should not be unravelled."@en1
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"Boa sorte!"1
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