Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-17-Speech-2-021-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120117.4.2-021-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, my dear Mr Schulz, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and on my own behalf, I should like to congratulate you and to congratulate our new President. I wish you a great deal of courage, lucidity and strength to guide this institution, which collectively represents 500 million Europeans, in the most dignified and responsible way possible.
This is a challenge primarily facing you, Mr President, and us, ladies and gentlemen, as elected representatives of the people of Europe.
It is up to you and us, along with the European Commission, the guardian of the Treaties, to display enough responsibility to convince our States that shared sovereignty, that real economic and political convergence, are our best tools to face the challenge of growth.
Mr Schulz, as President of this institution, you will have to face many external challenges, and the PPE Group will be at your side to help you in the European spirit I have just mentioned. We would also encourage you to transmit this message to countries such as Ukraine, where Yulia Tymoshenko has faced unacceptable treatment, or Syria, where the population’s will to change has been unspeakably repressed.
You are also planning to improve the internal functioning of Parliament and I welcome this. Your predecessors have largely paved the way and the recent adoption of a code of conduct is fully in keeping with the desire for greater transparency and greater responsibility from each of the Members.
My group will therefore support you on this front.
Mr President, from now on, you will be leading an institution unlike any other in the world: a plurinational Parliament, which votes on legislation. For two and a half years, you shall be the leader of a House that does not seek to impose on the Council the idea that we will not overcome our current difficulties by creating a new treaty, a new Parliament, new governance, but that seeks to convince the Council of this.
Mr President, we will join forces behind you each time you defend this integrated Europe, this Europe of solidarity, this Europe that delivers innovative solutions. We will join forces behind you each time you plead the case of common European policies, as well as each time you fight for funding to live up to the ambitions of these common policies. Finally, we will join forces behind you each time you defend and promote the ideas and values that are the foundations of our Union beyond our borders, namely freedom, tolerance, respect for the weakest in society and solidarity. Mr Schulz, I wish you every success in your Presidency.
However, I should firstly like to pay tribute to Nirj Deva and Diana Wallis who also stood as candidates to the Presidency of this institution. I should like to say to them that, although the two main groups in this House took the political decision at the beginning of this term of office to entrust the Presidency of Parliament to one of their own Members in turn, my group respects Mr Deva and Ms Wallis for standing as candidates and thanks them for their contribution to this election.
However, this morning, Mr Schulz, I should also like to thank your predecessors and, in particular, Jerzy Buzek, whose capabilities as a statesman, which were already well-known in Poland, have been of great benefit to Parliament. Mr Buzek and, before him, Hans-Gert Pöttering and all their predecessors, starting with Simone Veil, the first President of the European Parliament to be elected by universal suffrage, all of the Presidents here today who have succeeded one another, have, in their own way, strengthened the powers and competences of this institution. Your political action, Mr President, will follow their lead.
Mr President, for years we have had the opportunity to work together as chairs of our political groups. For the most part, I do not share your political convictions and our respective political groups have differing opinions on a number of subjects. This has not stopped us from placing our trust in you because, in the difficult situation facing Europe, what brings us together is far more important than what divides us.
You are determined, as you have just told us, Mr President, to defend the European general interest resolutely in the face of diverse national interests. My group can only support you fully in this mission, in this action, knowing that the coming months will be one of the most critical periods that Europe has experienced since its creation.
In our view, you have three priorities: defending the Community method, supporting the Community method and safeguarding the Community method.
Nothing is more important than defending European heritage, namely, guaranteeing the general interest, protecting the small States from the bigger ones, and respecting their points of view without allowing it to lead to a deadlock. Nothing is more important than coming out of the crisis on top, through greater European integration, and nothing is more important than showing our citizens that the euro will be a strong, sustainable currency, insofar as we are doing what we should have done since its creation, namely, implementing political and economic governance. Finally, nothing is more important than preserving the common good that is solidarity between 500 million Europeans.
Ladies and gentlemen, by creating what would become the European Union, the founding fathers have left us with a challenge the likes of which has never been seen, namely, uniting the destiny of countries and peoples who, in the past, tore one another apart and fought against one another for centuries.
Adenauer, Schuman and de Gasperi rose to this challenge, and their successors, to this day, have kept this European dream alive in spite of the economic and internal difficulties, and in spite of a radical shift in the global geostrategic situation. It is our generation’s responsibility not to fail in this task. It is up to us to overcome the financial crisis, the current crisis of confidence, to guarantee our children – and you have said it yourself – not only a viable future, but, above all, a better future."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples