“The conclusions confirm the tasks we have set ourselves in three key areas. With them we have given the European Union the wherewithal to continue to tackle the most pressing challenges we face at the moment,” said Janez Janša, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and current President of the European Council, at the press conference at the end of the spring European Council meeting in Brussels. The new three-year Lisbon Strategy cycle has been launched, fundamental principles for the adoption of the energy and climate change package have been confirmed and responses to current challenges relating to increasing the stability of the financial markets have been agreed.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
The Prime Minister, Janez Janša, said he was convinced that the Lisbon Strategy would prove to be even more effective in the second cycle than in the first, as it responds to the challenges of the age and to the globalisation and communication revolution. “We are aware that economic, social and environmental challenges are intertwined; our response should therefore be a comprehensive one,” he stressed. New challenges – such as climate change – also open up new opportunities for modernising the European economy and orienting ourselves towards the technologies of the future.
The Prime Minister qualified the energy and climate change package presented in January 2008 as the European Union’s comprehensive response to the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. The proposal prepared by the European Commission was evaluated as an excellent basis for future action on the environment. At the Council meeting, the EU-27 Heads of State and Government pledged to reach agreement on the entire package by the end of 2008. Constructive work and cooperation between all the institutions of the European Union will be of paramount importance in this process. PM Janez Janša fully endorsed this commitment, adding: “I am pleased to note that we shall have the help of the European Parliament, as its President promised yesterday, in those areas where Parliament is involved in co-adopting the package.” The Summit also confirmed fundamental principles that would serve as the basis for discussion on detailed elements of the energy and climate change package in the coming months. The principles are: economic prosperity and overall efficiency, solidarity and fair distribution of efforts aimed at reaching these objectives, and transparency.
(Photo: bor Slana/Bobo)
The European Council also discussed an upper emissions limit at European Union level. “The system to date, based on determining national emission ceilings, has not provided a sufficient guarantee of actually achieving the emission reduction targets confirmed in March last year. We have, therefore, agreed today to support the approach of setting a single EU-wide cap,” said Council President Janez Janša.
Today’s discussion also touched on the problems encountered by the sectors that were, on account of the higher environmental standards required in the European Union, additionally exposed to international competition. Relocation of industries from European Union countries to non-EU countries can cause serious economic and social difficulties at home, as Janez Janša noted, while also contributing, on account of lower standards, to a global increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the process. The Slovenian Premier, currently President of the European Council, pointed out that the proper solution is the timely adoption of a global agreement in the area of climate change post-2012. Such an agreement must ensure equal environmental requirements for all. The Prime Minister stressed that the European Commission’s current analyses showed that the measures proposed would, by 2020, improve energy intensity by almost one third.
(Photo: bor Slana/Bobo)
Decisions taken at the spring European Council also pertained to current developments on the financial markets. The Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, reported that the Council was unanimous in deeming action necessary in the areas of transparency, evaluation standards, prudential frameworks and crisis management effectiveness, as well as market operation and structural incentives. “We agreed that responsibility for improving the situation in the private sector is of primary importance,” he said and took the opportunity to urge financial institutions to contribute, within their powers, to lessening uncertainty on the markets. “An informal ECOFIN meeting will be held in Slovenia in April, at which an extensive review will be carried out; the European Council will discuss the issue again in the autumn,” concluded the Slovenian Premier.
