Brussels, 08/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - Speaking before the “Association des français fonctionnaires des communautés européennes” (AFFCE), the President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Michel Delebarre, spoke on 6 June on the European question as part of the French presidential debate in 2007. He said: “The political will to lead Europe in the right direction is what is needed. It is not the texts that destroy Europe, it is the lack of political will”. To the backdrop of the French and Dutch no-votes to the constitutional treaty, the Deputy Mayor of Dunkirk immediately urged for the candidates to the Presidency of the French Republics to present their “prospects for another Europe”. “We need a Europe that is more protective than ever and appears as such in the eyes of the citizens”, he said. On the subject of the French presidential campaign, Mr Delebarre added: “Although I want another Europe, I also want another France, a decentralised France (…). There cannot be a future for France without Europe and France cannot be reformed without Europe”.
In response to the concerns expressed by European officials, Michel Delebarre said: - 1) Lisbon Strategy: ”I shall never suggest that a candidate campaign for Lisbon”. No-one understands a thing, while it is not absurd to focus on certain choices and to speak, for example, of common agricultural policy in Brittany or technologies in Grenoble. - 2) How can the French be given back their confidence? “If the French were happier, they would be more European”, Mr Delebarre said, for whom “a vague hope the day after a real campaign is a driving force for transforming a country”. - 3) Structural Funds: “It is wrong to say that Europe does not have a social side - it does. Structural Funds are the face of Europe across the territories”, Mr Delebarre continued (speaking as a former president of the region of Nord Pas-de-Calais who has known restructuring of the steel industry, the closure of shipyards and relocation). “I have experience of the Structural Funds and I know what they have given to the regions, like the European Social Fund which has helped many people out of impossible situations. Europe is the social accompaniment of essential restructuring”, he explained. - 4) Salary differences in the EU25: “I have never said that I wanted a minimum European salary, or a salary in line with that in Luxembourg which is €1400 per month!”, Mr Delebarre said.
By way of conclusion, Mr Delebarre cited Jean-Claude Juncker on the future of Europe (see EUROPE 9200 on the subject of the speech delivered by the Luxemburg Prime Minister when receiving the Charlemagne Prize). “I should like us to become proud of Europe. We have made peace and we are not proud. We have created the internal market and we are not proud. We have abolished borders - something that no-one had ever done before - and we are not proud. We have created single currency which makes us the second economic power in the world, and we are not proud. We have reconciled European geography and history, and we are admired by the whole planet for this, but we are not proud. We must make that leap forward!”