Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-11-Speech-2-014"
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"Mr President, I am very pleased to present the Commission’s annual policy strategy for 2009, which sets out the main policy priorities envisaged by the Commission for next year.
The main policy priorities which the Commission envisages for next year are structured around five pillars. First, promoting sustainable growth and jobs will remain at the heart of our agenda and of the renewed Lisbon Strategy. We will also pursue the implementation of the innovation strategy, the deepening of the European Research Area and the follow-up to the single market review. In this context, I am looking forward to the second-reading adoption of the European Institute of Technology – one of our flagship actions – later today, and I would like to congratulate this House on the excellent job it has done on bringing this to fruition.
Major effort will be put into promoting the transition to a low-emissions and resource-efficient economy. The Copenhagen meeting will be a major rendezvous to reach a global climate change agreement for the period beyond 2012. Europe must prepare its ground well and maintain its role as the pioneer on climate change. Work on how to assist with adaptation to the impact of climate change will need to be pursued.
In an era of globalisation, we should strive to make a reality of the common immigration policy. Work in this area will draw on the communication on immigration to be presented in June 2008. We will also focus our attention on delivering policies of direct interest to citizens through a common area of justice, fashioning a European response to chemical, biological and radiological threats, the European Union health strategy and through enforcing food and product safety rules more vigorously.
The revised and modernised social agenda will also guide our actions in a comprehensive approach to enable Europeans to realise their potential and benefit from globalisation, and will cover mobility, integration, education and non-discrimination. The key concepts for this social agenda will be access, opportunities and solidarity.
Finally, we will pursue our objective of consolidating the role of Europe as a global partner. Enlargement negotiations will continue and the Western Balkans association and stabilisation process will be further developed. We will implement the neighbourhood policy and launch operational partnerships with African countries under the joint European Union-Africa strategy.
The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty will significantly raise the Union’s external profile. To translate this new framework into action, a major task for the Commission will be to help establish the European External Action Service – all this for 2009, if all the timetables, as we hope, are respected.
The year 2009 will also be an important year in terms of preparing the ground for the future financing of the Union’s policies. The results of the consultation now under way on the budget review will help us to prepare the ground for the next multiannual financial framework, to be proposed by the next Commission.
As in previous years, the APS proposes communication priorities for 2009. In the run-up to the European elections, the Commission will seek to maximise its work in partnership with the other institutions and to help spark a lively debate on European policies. The annual policy strategy is only the beginning of the process, leading to the adoption of the Commission’s legislative and work programme in October.
The Commission looks forward to regular dialogue with Parliament on the priorities to be taken forward in 2009. I understand that Parliament intends to adopt a plenary resolution on the Commission’s legislative and work programme in September, a couple of weeks before we adopt the work programme for 2009. This plenary resolution will follow on from the summary report reflecting the results of our regular dialogue. It should provide us with a fully-grounded, politically-backed indication of where Parliament thinks the Commission should focus its commitment and its policies in 2009, in good time for the drawing-up of the work programme, focusing on European added value and in full respect of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
Therefore, my message to you today is that I am very much looking forward to this possibility of working with you on this very important programme for 2009. Let us work together to keep up the pace of action in 2009, so that Europe continues to deliver concrete results for the benefit of our citizens.
As you know, the objective of the annual policy strategy is to spark a dialogue with the other institutions, in particular the European Parliament, on where the priorities should lie next year. This dialogue is essential to ensuring proper preparation of the Commission work programme for 2009.
2009 will be a special year, a transition year of great importance marked, I am confident, by the likely entry into force of the new European Treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon. 2009 will also be symbolically very important because we will have a chance to celebrate 20 years of the march of freedom since the fall of the Berlin Wall, so it is a very important opportunity to commemorate freedom and the reunification of Europe.
It will also be the year of the election of a new European Parliament and a new Commission, so what we do in the first six months of 2009 will set the mood for the European elections. The smooth implementation of the Lisbon Treaty will ensure a European Union fit to tackle the challenges of the future. I hope and expect that we will see the finishing touches to the most ambitious system in the world to tackle climate change and promote energy security. And it is particularly important that we do it in the first half of 2009 at the latest, so that the European Union can be ready to make a decisive contribution to the global negotiations at the Copenhagen Conference at the end of that year.
But first a word on 2008. Given the institutional changes to come and, in particular, the end of the legislative term, the Commission has made every attempt to ensure that the new legislative proposals included in the 2008 work programme are scheduled for adoption by the College before the end of 2008. Thirty-five legislative initiatives are foreseen in the work programme. We will work hard to try to minimise those likely to come in the closing months of the year, such as the framework directive on consumer contractual rights, the review of the Energy Taxation Directive, and the directives on the conditions of entry and residence of seasonal workers and trainees. We will also make every effort to ensure that these proposals are presented according to the envisaged timetable to make this possible.
I very much hope that Parliament will be in a position to deliver its first-reading opinion on all the proposals flowing from the Commission work programme before the end of this parliamentary term.
I would like to underline that, as far as the Commission is concerned, we are fully on track to deliver all the strategic initiatives we have announced and, hence, to repeat our record performance of an implementation rate of 96%, which we achieved in 2007. It is the highest implementation rate ever in the work of the Commission.
As regards 2009, the Commission will stick to its ambition of delivering a Europe of results, bringing concrete benefits to citizens. We will focus on completing what has been started since the beginning of our mandate and make every effort to achieve the strategic objectives defined in 2005 and to address the challenges ahead. This will, of course, require close cooperation between Parliament and the Commission.
The entry into force of the Reform Treaty will also require the Commission to present a number of proposals to give force to its provisions, and I will highlight here those proposals that will promote greater democracy for, and greater participation by, Europe’s citizens, such as the citizens’ initiative. We look forward to discussing with Parliament in the coming weeks and months how we can best progress with these proposals in the first few months of next year."@en1
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