The Future of Europe

By José Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission

At Joint Parliamentary meeting organised by the Finnish Parliament and the European Parliament
Brussels, 5 December 2006

 

Last May 9, we marked Europe Day by debating the future of Europe. I was left with a strong impression. It seemed to me clear that there was plenty of optimism in the parliaments of Europe about what the Union could achieve. That there was a very broad level of agreement on Europe‘s future direction. Above all, I felt a strong consensus that European Union now needs to move forward. In the Commission, we also felt a similar consensus among Europe‘s citizens. It was one of the conclusions of our Plan D initiative. This left us with a somehow contradictory impression. On the one hand, many in Europe talked about a “European paralysis” after the failure of the ratification process. On the other hand, there was clearly a strong will to move the EU forward. As I will explain, I believe the EU has responded to this will to move forward in a decisive way.

However, despite the advances, we cannot allow the resolution of the constitutional question to be left on one side. In the first place, we need to show that we can tackle the tough political challenges, that the European Union can react when faced with a setback. But just as importantly, we cannot continue to build tomorrow’s Europe with yesterday’s tools. We need the extra efficiency and democracy the Constitution would bring.

Last month, Vice-President Wallstrom and I published a paper prepared by the Commission services which set out in detail the price of delay. Across a wide range of fields, the Union will be trying to deliver effective policies for its citizens with one hand tied behind its back.

Since coming into office, the Commission has been able to offer leadership and to launch new initiatives. Since last May we have come forward with new initiatives on areas as diverse as maritime policy and mobile phones, China and postal services, immigration and enlargement . Some of these have already been given a welcome by the European Council and the European Parliament – including our vision for encouraging innovation in Europe and the proposal to set up a European Institute for Technology. On the external front, we were able to offer a comprehensive response to the crisis in Lebanon, bring political influence, humanitarian aid and economic support into play

Therefore, the EU has not stood still since May. Far from it.

The day after our last debate, the Commission adopted its twin track strategy for taking Europe forward. On the one hand, an ambitious set of policies targeted directly on citizens’ interests. A new impetus for the Single Market. A new agenda for opportunity, access and solidarity. Practical measures to bring more security to Europe‘s citizens. Concrete measures to make Europe‘s global weight more than the sum of its parts.

And on the other hand, a path to take the Union forward towards an institutional settlement. This meant a step by step approach to build a real consensus and to set us on the right path. This approach passed its first test in June with the endorsement of the European Council. This marked the shift from the period of reflection to a period of more active engagement. Thus, I believe we are back on track.

We only have to look at the diversity of the issues you have been tackling in your own meeting to see that European Union is not short on ideas. Looking at Own Resources, you are ahead of the pack, developing ideas and principles which will be invaluable as we develop our own budgetary review. And when I went to Darfur recently, I saw for myself the scope for stepping up EU action on conflict prevention.

Let’s look at four areas in more detail.

I would like to start with energy. I know that parliaments across Europe, as well as here in the European Parliament, have been helping to step up the pressure for change. So I was particularly pleased to see the emphasis you have put on energy in this meeting. It touches on the daily lives of every European. The recent blackouts have shown again how it can only be tackled on a European scale. And it is just the kind of ambitious policy where we can only advance through a real partnership between the European institutions and key actors at national level – parliaments, regulators, planners, investors. As we all know, energy was at the heart of the early days of European integration. Now it is back.

The Commission is in the final stages of preparing its Strategic Energy Review. This will be launched next month, hand in hand with a new policy on climate change.

The goal is to establish a true European energy policy that is equal to the challenge of providing competitive, secure and sustainable energy for Europe – and of ensuring that we continue to lead the way on tackling climate change. Global demand for energy is rising faster than supply – while at the same time by 2030, Europe could be relying on imports for 70% of its energy needs. At the same time, energy causes over 80% of global greenhouse emissions. We need new targets for reducing emissions, and new policies to make this goal achievable. That should be our common goal.

Second, enlargement. I think the last six months has helped to dispel some of the misunderstandings about enlargement. Last May, I stressed how we needed to show that Europe does not enlarge by default, but through our own deliberate choice. The last six months have shown how this is true, and the result is the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on the 1st of January 2007. This decision fully supports democratic reforms in both countries, which could have lost momentum if we had postponed the accession by another year. As for future enlargements, the Commission has issued a detailed report on enlargement and integration capacity, detailing how the Union ensures that enlargement brings strength to the Union and how the Union works hard to respect its commitments. And last week’s recommendations on Turkey showed that the speed of progress towards enlargement depends on results, and on the respect for the rule of law, a fundamental principle of the EU. Enlargement is a process, it is not an unstoppable conveyor belt.

Third, our relations with national parliaments. In May, I set out our intention to step up our relations with national parliaments. A new system is up and running. Proposals and consultative documents are now sent in real time to national parliaments. National parliaments can take a look, and can choose to give us their views. And I can assure you that these views are taken very seriously. New arrangements have been set up to ensure that every comment is looked at with care and that a dedicated response is prepared.

Doubtless some of the comments will be critical, some will be supportive. This is very natural. But the fact that national parliaments are prepared to devote energy to engaging in this dialogue is to me proof of their commitment to the future of the European Union.

The Commission will continue to respond. I myself will be stepping up direct contact with national parliaments through visits in the coming weeks to a number of member-states . Despite all these achievements, we cannot escape the fact that some policies are being blocked, while we wait for an institutional settlement. And the Union‘s attempts to bring more clarity to its work and to introduce more mechanisms for transparency and accountability are being held up.

This leads me to say some words on the Constitutional Treaty itself. Here I believe the June European Council showed a real determination to move ahead – not just to deal with the institutional issues as a problem hanging over the Union, but more optimistically as a real opportunity. An opportunity to show that the Union wants to reform not for its own sake, but so that it can better meet citizens’ expectations. I think we should hold on to this idea.

The European Commission, and I personally, fully support the principles, the values and the substance of the Constitutional Treaty. As I repeated many times before, the Nice Treaty is not enough. As the Commission paper on the cost of the non-Constitution says, we need to solve the challenge at the heart of the institutional question: to ensure that the EU becomes more efficient, more transparent, more cohesive in its external action, and more democratic, namely by reinforcing the role of the national parliaments. To achieve that, the Commission is ready to fully support Member States’ efforts, in particular the German Presidency during the next six months.

We need to make a strong effort to convince why an active, efficient and democratic European Union for the twenty first century, able to defend the interests and the values of its states and citizens, needs institutional settlement.

This is where everyone here has a central part to play. I would like to make an appeal to all of you, who are directly involved in European affairs. This is the moment to show political determination and our conviction about the merits of a strong European Union. Europe is not about only Brussels. Europe is about all member-states, with national parliaments, pushing the process forward. Your voice on Europe must also be heard. Therefore, in the coming months, I hope that, together, we can all help to make the positive case for why an updating of the way the European Union works is in all our interests and, more importantly, in the interests of our citizens.

The Berlin Declaration in March will give us a chance to show how 50 years of European integration offer the right platform for the future. It will remind us of what makes the European Union tick – that remarkable mix of freedoms, institutions and laws which transforms our common objectives and common values into concrete action. But the Berlin Declaration cannot only look at our past successes. It must chart our vision for the future and reaffirm the political commitment of member-states to the European project. In particular, European political leaders can tell European citizens why Europe never had it so good as during the last 50 years and why if they want to have it still better, during the next 50 years, they need a stronger European Union.