Speeches

Speech from Mr Hans-Gert Poettering,
Chairman of the EPP-ED Group,
in the European Parliament
on Wednesday, 4 July 2001

Statement of the Presidency-in-Office of Council - Programme of the Belgian Presidency





President in Office, you have just presented a very ambitious programme, which has the full support of the EPP-ED Group in this Parliament.

You stated clearly in your speech that you represent the Europe of the Community and not a Europe of Intergovernmental co-operation. This is why we are on your side, because you have the European system, democracy and Community procedures at the top of your list. This follows the tradition set by your Christian Democratic predecessors, Wilfried Martens, Leo Tindemans and Jean-Luc Dehane who have made a huge contribution to European development.

On the 1 January 2002 we will have the common currency. The Euro is a peaceful revolutionary event. Let us welcome the European currency and clearly defend it, because if the young generation of today in all the countries of the European Union and even beyond see that they can pay with one single currency then this is a value that will have a peaceful impact. Let us not talk down the Euro, let us defend it openly and clearly.

This means, President in Office, and I am appealing to you now, that we have a stability policy to combat inflation, that we reduce public debts and so on, and that we make sure that it is worthwhile investing in Europe. Therefore, it is not enough simply to take the tax burden off the large companies, but the small and medium-sized enterprises must also enjoy an easier tax situation. There should be a clear signal to Europe that we want economic growth. The Heads of State of Government have said that the Union must have the most competitive economy in the whole world. That only makes sense, if we actually encourage investment in Europe. Therefore you should clearly identify the Member States that are not actually sticking to these principles.

You have talked about Laeken. We will be represented as a Parliament in the Convention, and we welcome that. The Commission and national governments will also be represented. But the Governments must be represented by politicians who have a national mandate, who are in touch with their parliaments and people and not by officials.

Then there is the question of transparency. We have heard, with great pleasure, your views on this. Whenever there are legislative activities at stake, as in the Conciliation Committee, the Council should be represented by Ministers and not by a mixture of Ministers and officials as is currently the practice.

We talked about the tasks of the High Representative. Our Group has a very high opinion of Mr. Solana, but we agree with you that what we must achieve in the next reform is that the functions of the High Representative should be equal to a Commissioner so that in fact this function should be anchored to the Commission. We must make sure that the High Representative can also be regularly attend plenary sessions of the European Parliament, so that he is accountable to us on the implementation of our common foreign security policy.

Finally, let me just point out to you, that we recognise the fact that the Belgian Presidency, because of its historic responsibility for Africa, will make that a particular priority, and we support you in that. At the same time, we would like to say that we will be concentrating our foreign political efforts on the developments in the Balkans. We should not just talk about defence. We should go beyond rhetoric and actually have hard material support, so that we have forces that can make a real contribution to peace in Europe.

I wish you a great deal of success in what you are going to do. It bodes well for the European Union that you have coped well with your eleven previous presidencies, and we wish you all the best for the twelfth. We are all behind you.