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  Wilfried MARTENS re-elected as President The 500 delegates attending the EPP Congress have elected, for a period of three years, Wilfried MARTENS as President of the EPP. Wilfried MARTENS has been President of the EPP since 1990. The EPP Congress met in Brussels from 4-6 February. The main theme of the Congress being the new millenium, "On our way to the 21st century". Congress also elected: A. 7 Vice Presidents :
B. The Treasurer: Ingo FRIEDRICH: Vice Chairman of the CSU, Germany and Member of the European Parliament, EPP Treasurer since 1996. C. The Secretary General: Alejandro AGAG LONGO: Former Deputy Secretary General of the EPP and Personal Assistant to the Spanish Prime Minister, José Maria AZNAR. The Congress of the EPP also adopted an Action Programme for the next directly elected European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. This document is the point of reference for the full period of the next Parliament for all EPP MEPs. The full text will be available as quickly as possible on our Internet site (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ppe). Attached please find a short summary of the EPP Action Programme. For further information: Marianne Amssoms - tel: 02/284 22 33 gsm: 075/42 24 74 Brussels, February 8, 1999 résumé - full text will be on this site by Feb 9/ 10 ON THE WAY TO THE 21ST CENTURY On the threshold of the 21st century, the European Union is faced with new challenges. The European Parliament can argue that in a number of fields it has become a fully fledged co-legislator, permitting it considerable influence over the living conditions of all 375 million citizens of Europe's Member States. The 626 Members of the European Parliament - all directly-elected - will have to decide both on enlargement to CCEE (Countries of Central and Eastern Europe) and on the composition of the new European Commission. Europe must not be dominated by a Socialist majority. The European People's Party therefore intends to campaign in the 1999 European elections to become the largest political force in the European Parliament, and re-establish political balance in the European institutions. The EPP believes in bringing together European integration, national and regional interests, economic and social progress, freedom and responsibility, tradition interwoven with modernity, the capacity to defend itself while advocating a policy of peace. Our declared opponents are extremists of both Left and Right. The EPP accepts the challenges of the 21st century. We want a united Europe, one which is democratic and transparent, and capable of taking action. We do not want a centralised super-state. The EPP is in favour of sharing responsibilities and competences between the European Union, Member States, regional, and even municipal, institutions in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. 1. AGENDA 2000 Following their return to liberty and democracy, enlargement to Central and Eastern European countries is our historic duty. Both candidate states and current EU Member States will benefit in numerous respects from enlargement. Regardless of how many states join the Union in the next enlargement, the EPP supports radical institutional reform. The EU needs its own constitution, along the lines of a constitution proposed by the European Parliament, so that decision- making procedures between the EU, Member States, and regions can be regulated, and conform to the subsidiarity principle. This must also include a catalogue of fundamental rights in accordance with the European Declaration on Human Rights. Council legislative decisions must as a rule be by majority vote; exclusively those concerning changes to the Treaty, enlargement, or increases in own resources, will continue to require unanimity, and then ratified by Member States and the European Parliament. The European Parliament must be enabled to dismiss individual Commissioners by a qualified majority vote. This means a stricter control over the Commission. In the EPP's view the Commission must energetically pursue any sign of corruption. Future EU financing, in terms both of expenditure and outgoings, should be a healthy mixture of solidarity, appropriateness, and efficiency. The total cost of the European Union, including the financing of the new accessions, must be shouldered equally by all Member States. 2. ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL AND MONETARY POLICY Creating new jobs is one of the highest priorities. To improve the employment situation, the EPP calls for the creation of conditions which favour growth and competitiveness in the European economy. The following are needed to bring this about:
So fighting unemployment - especially long-term unemployment - is central to the EPP. Subsidiarity should apply to the way this goal is achieved in the European Union. Growth remains a precondition of new jobs. The internal market offers enterprises good opportunities of growth and increased markets and therefore the creation of more jobs. That effect is enhanced by the European Monetary Union. The EPP supports considerable flexibility in the labour markets. Small and medium-sized enterprises, taken as a whole the main employers, must be given optimum operating conditions for their entry into a globalised world. 4. REFORM OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL The social market economy faces major challenges. The welfare state has been extended beyond the limits of what is sensible, to the point where both competitiveness and growth have suffered. Demography and increased unemployment have also created permanent financing problems for social security systems. The EPP sees social assistance as a safety net for those in real need who are in trouble through no fault of their own. Individual responsibility must be reinforced; the major risks in life, however, remain a collective responsibility. 5. EUROPEAN TRAINING AND EDUCATION POLICY Training and further education are the cornerstones of the future. Schools and other training institutions must take into account the different capacities of our children and young people in training. Only rigorous education will prepare students for the many-sided challenges of the future. Encouragement of mobility, particularly language-learning, is especially important in this connection. The family must remain the core element in educating young people. 6. RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY Scientific research and new technology are and will remain the sine qua non of economic progress and the growth of productivity and prosperity. Europe must spend a comparable proportion of its GDP on research and innovation as Japan or the USA. 7. THE GLOBALISATION OF CRIME: A CHALLENGE The menace of organised international criminality is one of the major challenges to modern society. The time has come to examine our traditional concepts of crime-fighting which are based on traditional ideas of impermeable frontiers. All Member States should rather make clear their political will to act collectively in order to tackle this problem efficiently. Co-operation at a juridical level and providing Europol with executive and operational competencies are the best ways to fight organised international criminality. 8. IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM LAW Given the progressive abolition of internal EU border controls, the EPP sees agreement on common immigration and asylum policy as particularly important. Having a variety of laws and procedures in the EU is untenable. Asylum seekers must be distributed between the Member States; this implies common regulations. Integration is basic to migration policy. The principle of a single, exclusive nationality must be maintained. 9. EUROPE'S RESPONSIBILITY IN THE WORLD The European Union requires a Common Foreign and Security Policy which enables it to become a political power. Conflict-prevention and peace-keeping operations at an early stage must be integrated into a coherent approach. The EU should also aim to be represented as such in the UN Security Council. It is important that the Western European Union (WEU) should, as an integral part of the EU , be developed as the European pillar of NATO. 1O. CARING FOR CREATION The EPP stresses the need for a common environmental policy. The EPP is determined to make the European Union an environmental union. Key measures to achieve this are the introduction of harmonized energy taxes agreed on a Europe-wide basis which do not endanger either competition or overall tax levels, as well as voluntary restrictions on energy use. If we are to improve climate protection, it is absolutely vital to implement the goals of the Climate Convention. |
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