At today’s extraordinary plenary meeting of the European Parliament in Brussels, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and current President of the European Council, Mr Janez Janša, presented the conclusions adopted at the spring European Council meeting held on 13 and 14 March this year.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
“We can confirm that the debates and conclusions were dedicated to what are truly the most pressing issues Europe faces at this moment,” was the Slovenian Prime Minister’s assessment of the EU-27 Summit held in March. The achievements of the European Council can, in PM Janša’s words, be summarised as three important decisions: the launch of an ambitious, specific and more modern three-year cycle of the Lisbon Strategy, one that affords a better balance between concerns for people and the environment on the one hand and a competitive, knowledge-based market economy on the other; confirmation of the basic principles and the timeframe for the adoption of the energy and climate change package and definition of the further steps to be taken in order to stabilise the financial markets.
“The sufficiently solid foundations of the European economy are actually the reason why the uncertainties of the global financial market, the prices of oil and other raw materials have had far less severe consequences for the European Union than they would have if the economic foundations of the EU really were weak,” said the Prime Minister in his address to the Members of the European Parliament. He also stressed that, in the newly launched cycle of the Lisbon Strategy, every effort must be focused on the consistent implementation of reforms, with the priority areas remaining the same: knowledge and innovation, promotion of entrepreneurial potential, modernisation of labour markets, energy and climate change.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
In the Prime Minister’s words, the most high-profile achievement of this European Council is in the area of energy and climate change. “The Heads of State and Government pledged to reach agreement on basic principles by the end of 2008, thus enabling the timely adoption of the package, which should, in any event, take place before the end of the current term of office of the European Parliament.” In this regard, the current President of the European Council emphasised that it was only with the timely adoption of the package, whereby an important role would be played by the European Parliament, that the expectations of the citizens of Europe and other EU partners throughout the world would be justified, especially in view of negotiations on a comprehensive post-Kyoto agreement next year in Copenhagen. The Slovenian Prime Minister said he was pleased to observe that Member States no longer saw the whole process only as a sharing of a burden but also as a new opportunity for development. PM Janez Janša noted another achievement of the European Council in this area: the agreement on establishing an overall EU emissions cap and an EU-wide emission trading scheme. He also drew attention to the fact that the relocation of energy-intensive industries from the European Union to countries with lower environmental standards represented not only a risk in terms of losing jobs in the European Union but also the risk of an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Energy and climate issues will be a common thread running through all the forthcoming summits with Japan, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Russian Federation and the United States, which will take place in the first half of 2008.
In response to the turmoil on the European financial markets, the European Council, chaired by its current President, Janez Janša, unanimously confirmed the need for four measures, namely enhancing transparency, improving valuation standards, reinforcing the prudential framework, and improving market functioning and incentive structure.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
PM Janša also informed the Members of the European Parliament of agreement on strengthening the Barcelona Process, the major achievement of this European Council meeting under Slovenia’s leadership in this respect being to place the debate on a ‘Union for the Mediterranean’ on an institutional footing. Under the Barcelona Process, the Union for the Mediterranean will involve all EU Member States and other non-EU Mediterranean states and, as the Slovenian Prime Minister observed, the European Parliament will also be engaged in the debate in appropriate ways.
Address by the Prime Minister
