Brussels, 23/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - During the brief plenary debate Wednesday afternoon on the Commission's annual political strategy for 2007, aimed at strengthening confidence through action, President Barroso was questioned by several MEPs on the means needed to fulfil his ambitions. He was also compelled to take a stance on the negotiation underway on the financial perspectives 2007-2013 (see EUROPE 9157) on Tuesday evening's trilogue). The results of the last trilogue were “largely positive” and the interinstitutional agreement is now almost complete, with a new second part on “sound economic management”, José Manuel Barroso noted, welcoming progress made on the review clause of the budget structure, the financial regulation and certification by Member States of the use they make of Community funding. Barroso said that, with the Austrian Presidency, he has always urged for the Council to agree on an overall figure for 2007-2013, and the Commission is backing the most ambitious agreement possible, he assured, while telling MEPs they will have to wait and see how far the Council is willing to go. He calls on them to show they are willing to come to a compromise. In his view, “there is light at the end of the tunnel” and it is now a matter of finding the “proper mix” between flexibility and overall ceilings.
Some MEPs questioned Mr Barroso about the fate of the European Constitution. Will it be adopted in 2007? is what Bronislaw Geremek (ALDE, Poland) wanted to know, while Alexander Stubb (EPP-ED, Finland) said it was a good Constitution and that it should be “kept alive” until spring 2007. By the next European Council, the Commission will present its ideas and, even if the constitutional treaty is intergovernmental, the Commission may assume its responsibilities and make a contribution, Mr Barroso replied. Jeffrey Titford (Ind/Dem, UK) sounded a discordant note, citing George Orwell's “1984” and exclaiming that the date was wrong, that what Orwell had predicted was “at the corner with controls, controls, controls”, “a bureaucratic nightmare” that citizens can but reject. British Conservative John Bowis, on the other hand, took a highly constructive stance and urged Europe to take inspiration from Dumas and his three musketeers: “all for one and one for all!”
In his address, Mr Barroso recalled that 2007 comes half-way during this Commission's term of office and that, with the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, 2007 also provides the possibility for stock to be taken of the next stages of integration. If conditions are met, there will be 27 places around the table when Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union, he added. An agreement on the financial perspectives 2007-2013 will make it possible to launch new financing programmes, and the Commission will work hard at preparing the vast reform of the Union budget, which will result in the publication of a White Paper in 2008-2009, Mr Barroso recalled. On the subject of the main goals for next year, he pointed out that these will mainly be to: - make implementation of the renewed Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment move forward, including the key stages allowing for a new European energy policy to be created; - demonstrate that cohesion, solidarity and protection of the environment go hand in hand with the aim of growth and employment, and promote equal opportunities; - do away with internal border controls for the new Member States, as well as between them, and extend the Schengen Area; - intensify preventive efforts in order to ensure security and protection of citizens; - and ensure practical demonstration of increased political coherence and greater effectiveness of aid outside the Union, which are essential if such goals are to be attained.