Strasbourg, 15/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on 15 November, President Barroso presented the legislative and working programme of the Commission for 2006, a programme which includes the keywords "prosperity, solidarity in the enlarged Europe, security and reinforcement of Europe in the world", but which, he warned, "will count for very little" without an agreement on the financial perspectives 2007-2013. "I am counting on the good sense of the UK Presidency" to reach such an agreement at the December Summit, said Mr Barroso, who also hopes that this will be the occasion for a confirmation of the consensus reached at the informal summit of Hampton Court on " how to preserve our values" in the face of globalisation. Mr Barroso also took the opportunity to launch an appeal for the Doha Round to succeed (see other articles). We have made a "strong and conditional- I stress conditional" offer on agriculture, he pointed out. "Our commitment remains, but the others must now move. I do not accept that certain people are holding Europe accountable" for problems with negotiations at the WTO, he said, adding: "stop proselytising about the opening up of the markets and start to negotiate".
The first reactions of MEPs (who will vote on a resolution on 14 December) were fairly mixed. Some of them welcomed the improvement of Commission/Parliament dialogue on preparations for the programme, notably Joseph Daul (EPP-ED, France), president of the committee on agriculture and the conference of presidents of the Parliamentary committees. In the same group, British Conservative Malcolm Harbour described the programme as a "strange document", announcing 96 measures without giving any sense of priorities (although he praised concrete initiatives such as CARS, launched by Commissioner Verheugen). In the view of the co-president of the group Independence and Democracy, Nigel Farage, on the other hand, it is "the most ambitious working programme ever seen in Europe's history". "What a pity that the Presidency of the Council did not turn up", he added (an absence which was also criticised by many other MEPs, who noted that all the Commissioners able to get to Strasbourg were present). Social Democrat Johannes Swoboda, for his part, pleaded: in this period marked by changes of government in certain Member States, the Commission must, more than ever, "play the role of leader". EUROPE will return to this debate.