Strasbourg, 10/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Nicolas Sarkozy's performance on Thursday 10 July before the European Parliament in Strasbourg was welcomed by the president of the European Parliament. Drawing on his 29 years of parliamentary experience, Hans-Gert Pöttering said this was “one of the most remarkable sessions” he has known. It is the first time that a Council president has answered all MEPs, Pöttering said at the press conference following a three and a half hour debate in Parliament. When asked at the press conference whether he could give the name of the future EPP candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, Nicolas Sarkozy replied: “Do I have a candidate? Yes, I do - he is at the same table”, looking in José Manuel Barroso's direction. President Pöttering was quick to follow up with the same response.
Speaking of the “critical moment for Europe”, Nicolas Sarkozy told MEPs that “Europe must be brought out of the crisis in which it finds itself” and “Europeans must be reassured as they are worried”. The president of the French Republic, for whom this was the first speech in plenary in his capacity as president of the European Council, first of all spoke of the institutional problem. He pointed out that he will be in Ireland on 21 July “to listen, to dialogue and to seek solutions” and that the French Presidency will suggest a “method” for overcoming the crisis in “October or December”. He also said the European elections would be organised either on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty or on that of Nice. “I have always wanted enlargement” and “the 2004 enlargement was a success”, he continued, stressing the need to have institutions before any further enlargement. “Nice is the Europe of 27. If we want enlargement, and we want enlargement, then new institutions are needed”. He went on to emphasise: “It is Lisbon and enlargement (…) it is a question of coherence. (…) Perhaps, one day, we shall have to move on to a multi-speed Europe, but that must be the very last solution (…). The European family has twenty-seven members. We must leave no-one behind”.
In the current situation, “nothing would be worse than to give the feeling of inertia. It is Europe's duty to act immediately given the institutional problem”, said Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to “show Europeans that Europe can protect them”. He went on to explain that, as far back as early antiquity, men have had public powers for their protection. It is therefore necessary to “protect without being protectionist”.
“CO2 emissions, the ozone layer - they don't care about borders between countries”, the French president said, stressing that “we are the last generation that can prevent disaster”. “Europe must set an example” with a view to the 2009 conference. He said: “Europe must come united after adopting the energy/climate package”, a package that he finds “demanding, difficult”. He went on to warn: “If every country starts wanting to renegotiate the point that is not to its liking, than we shall get nowhere. It is a priority. It is neither left nor right. It is simply common sense”.
Out of the EU's 27 countries, 23 are in the Schengen Area, he recalled, before going on to justify the European Pact on Immigration by the need to bring immigration out of national debate where extremist views are expressed. Nicolas Sarkozy takes the view that the only way to make the debate on immigration more responsible is to make it a European policy.
The French EU Presidency also wants to “make a concept (…), that of European defence, move forward”. “How can one expect Europe to be a political power, which speaks its mind out loud, if it cannot defend itself?”, the president of the European Council asked, saying: “Of course, there is NATO” and going on to underline his goal of “alliance with the United States and an autonomous European security policy”.
On the subject of the common agricultural policy, Nicolas Sarkozy pointed out that there will be 9 billion people on the planet in 2050 and that, at present, already one child dies of hunger every 30 seconds. Under these circumstances, is it reasonable to give up European agriculture? Is it reasonable to impose traceability rules and other rules on our farmers, and import meat that does not abide by any of these rules?
The social dimension is a “fantastic subject”, said the French president, who considers “pensions, healthcare - these are first and foremost a national priority”. He welcomes the Commission's new proposals for a directive. The French EU Council Presidency will make this a priority, he promises. On the subject of
Alzheimer's disease, he trusts that “a solution can be found together”, adding: “What I am saying about Alzheimer's is also true for cancer” and other diseases.
Calling for a “European cultural exception,” Sarkozy said that “The world has no need to go on bended knee before one single language and one single culture”. “I would like there to be a sporting exception … I cannot agree that 14 year-old boys in coaching centres can be poached by other clubs”.
“Europe has suffered from many things,” and first among these Sarkozy puts the “weakness” of some leaders who do not stand up at home for the decisions they take at European level. “The Polish president negotiated the Lisbon Treaty himself, he gave his word, he should now stand by it. It's not a matter of politics, it's a matter of ethics,” he said. In conclusion, he emphasised the importance of debate, including on the ECB, before saying, “I know how to be a team player”.
Commission President salutes dynamism of French Presidency
“I believe that this will be a dynamic, proactive Presidency, a Presidency of tangible results, towards which we are all going to work. The return of France in Europe which you wanted is unquestionably very good news for us all,” Commission President José Manuel Barroso said. Globalisation, international competition, disappearing fossil fuel and global warming “make it imperative for Europe to reform its economies to increase its competitiveness, modernise its social models and invest in education, research and innovation,” Barroso said. He went on: “The soaring prices of oil and raw materials, rising food prices, growing inflation, purchasing power's biggest enemy, are all casting a shadow over Europe at the moment”. “We are just back from the G8 summit in Japan. For me it is clear: the European Union has to have broader influence, but the expectations of it, and the respect in which it is held across the world, contrast sharply with the pessimism that we sometimes hear inside the Union,” he said, before returning to the proposal to set up a new fund for agriculture in developing countries. The European Commission would, he said, adopt this proposal next week, and he said he was counting on the support of both arms of the budgetary authority so that Europe could quickly provide the aid to African farmers, in close cooperation with the competent multilateral organisations. “This support is essential for the 'green revolution' which our neighbouring continent needs to secure its stability and its prosperity which, we all know, are of direct interest to Europe,” he added, before stating that, as the European Council had asked, the proposal would be within the current financial perspective. “What we did was to allocate the savings that high international prices allowed Europe to make under its domestic agricultural support policy to those who are suffering most from the price rises. This is a fine example of solidarity between European and African farmers, and an excellent illustration that the CAP and development policy can and must work together,” he said. The Commission would do all in its power so that a balanced and ambitious agreement can be reached with the European Parliament and member states on the energy/climate change package. “There also has to be progress on a controlled immigration policy in Europe,” Barroso said, too, before opining that “the adoption of the 'blue card' under your Presidency would be a big step towards this end”. He concluded on a social note, “France has made the new social agenda presented by the European Commission a few days ago one of its priorities. I welcome this. To prepare the future for European citizens, we have to give them opportunities, access to quality services, such as education and healthcare, and solidarity. No one in Europe must be left on the sidelines”.
Lively debate of much credit to the Parliament and Europe
Leader of the EPP-ED Group, Joseph Daul, welcomed the decision by France to make its Presidency one of political will. He said that his group supported the will of the French Presidency to move forward on the energy/climate change package, immigration, defence and food security. “European integration is an eminently political matter. I am in no doubt that, if we have the courage to make clear political choices, our fellow citizens will again believe in Europe,” he added. PES Group leader, Martin Schulz, said the energy/climate change package had to be the priority: “Do not go it alone, even though, with Angela Merkel, this may seem attractive,” he said. “I am pleased that you are going to Ireland, but leave Bernard Kouchner in Paris. I don't think that what he has said has been particularly helpful up until now,” he went on. He stressed the need for a social Europe, without which “the Socialists will not be able to support you”. Referring to the finger-printing of Roma children, Schulz also called on the President of the European Council to make sure that “Silvio Berlusconi understands that Europe is a Europe of law and not an arbitrary Europe”. British Liberal Democrat MEP, Graham Watson, noted that the VAT reduction was a short-term measure and that Europe needed a new energy policy to reduce CO2 emissions. He came out in favour of a non-protectionist agricultural policy. “France gave us human rights. It must be on the front line” in the EU and on the international stage, in North Africa and in China, Watson said, urging Sarkozy to “be a team player”.
Italian MEP Cristiana Muscardijni expressed the support of the Union for a Europe of Nations group for the French Presidency, and she hoped that it would emphasise the duties that came with rights. She also said she hoped that clear rules would be set out for international trade. “Your ambition for Europe is a drug which we all share,” said German Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit “paraphrasing a song which you know”. “Well done for the Pact on Immigration!” he exclaimed ironically, calling for the passerelle clause to be used to allow a real debate to be held in the European Parliament, with co-decision. He called for “students who have studied here to be allowed to live here”. Returning to the announcement that President Sarkozy would attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, Cohn-Bendit said, “You are going to use chopsticks to eat with the Chinese President at the opening of the Olympics. I will be thinking about those who are mouldering in prison. Here you had the perfect opportunity not to take part in this Chinese Communist Party charade. It's shameful, it's pathetic that you are going to the opening of the Games!” French leader of the GUE/NGL group Francis Wurtz regretted the backing given to the “directive of shame” (the return directive) and the social situation prevailing in Europe today where “a worker from another member state can be paid half as much as a German worker” in Lower Saxony. As for “the 65-hour working week, it's Dickens who has just been proclaimed the new father of Europe,” he added, before calling on the French Presidency to “change Europe for good”. “The peoples of Europe see every day that everything is escaping them,” said Philppe de Villiers on behalf of the IND/DEM group, deploring the dispossession of Nations “to the benefit of post-democratic bodies made up of bankers, official and judges”. “Accept the Irish people's vote and declare the treaty dead,” he said. Jean-Marie Le Pen, “a determined opponent of the Tower of Babel built on the ruins of Nation States”, criticised the French President for being a “Europeanist zealot”. “Your Europe is a boat cast adrift. With no borders, invaded by massive immigration, at best it is doomed to American protectionism,” he added.
Nicolas Sarkozy want parliament involved in discussions on Immigration Pact
Sarkozy thanked Daul for his group's support. “On the energy/climate change package, I know very will that it is the Parliament that has the last word, your involvement will be the deciding factor,” he said. To Cohn-Bendit, who reproached him for giving into the automobile industry, he said that “industrial pressure had to be resisted” but the aim was “to help the environment and resist relocations”. The lack of a minimum wage in Germany was the result of a national, not European, debate, he pointed out to Schulz, adding, “We in France want to retain our minimum wage”. Criticising the behaviour of certain large private banks, he said that bankers had better “be ready for some lessons”. The Presidency, he said, would bring forward proposals to “bring some ethics to financial capitalism”, “to bring some order to the mess things have become”. The Immigration Pact should allow a “Corpus Minimum” to be set up to avoid excesses. “Involving Parliament is a political commitment which I take and I will come with Bernard Kouchner and Brice Hortefeux to present the Pact,” he promised. With regard to student, he noted that, in France, there were more doctors from Bénin than there were in Bénin itself, and he urged that the third world should not be plundered of its elite. On China, he said, “I share your sentiments”, stressing that he had consulted all the member states. “All agreed that I should attend the ceremony. At this moment, 13 will be represented,” he said, arguing that “It is not by humiliating China that we will help human rights”. “I don't think that we can boycott a quarter of the world's population. I'm going to go, then, and talk about human rights. It is not up to China to set my timetable and my meetings, just as it is not for me to decide on the Chinese President's meetings. China is a member of the Security Council and we need China” (he cited Darfur and Iran). The French President, in closing, drew attention to developments between China and Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan. Finally, to Jean-Marie Le Pen, he said, “For 15 years, France had the most powerful extreme right. When I listen to you today, Mr Le Pen, I am delighted that time has gone”.
Lisbon Treaty: take inspiration from Danish precedent
Irish MEP Brian Cowley (UEN) welcomed the “openness of spirit” and the pragmatism of President Sarkozy, because, he said, the EU had been for too long dominated by “outdated ideologies”. Crowley also shared Sarkozy's opinion that we have to cooperate with China to put an end to the human drama in Darfur.
Nigel Farage, a Euro-sceptic MEP (UKIP) is rejecting the whole of the French presidency's programme which he believes is a reflection of the French presidency's desire to have an European Union that controls our whole life. He also attacked the arrogance of the presidency which wanted to save the Lisbon treaty while not respecting the wishes of the Irish people. Farage told Mr Sarkozy that he should ultimately understand that the people's of Europe did not want greater political integration. The former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Raasmussen (PES) said that the Irish no vote did not meant that the treaty was dead and Europe had to stop, at all. He affirmed, that “we Danes also said no once (on the Maastricht treaty in 1992, ED) but we were able to vote a second time” which enabled them to unblock matters. At the end of the debate, Mr Sarkozy agreed that the Danish example was positive and could open the way to resolving the current problem because the Irish had to respect the fact that the others had ratified the treaty and could not block up Europe. Rassmussen also said that Mr Sarkozy had to add a fifth priority to his work programme: “jobs, growth and sustainability”. The Danish MEP is proposing that Europe takes measures to better regulate the financial markets and launches a new coordinated investment initiative in areas such as education, environment and infrastructure. Harlem Désir (PES, France) said that it was right to aim for a “Europe that protects” but also said that they could not ignore the social Europe whose absence is at the origin of our “citizens falling out of love with the EU”.
Faced with problems caused by the Irish no vote on the Lisbon treaty, Silvana Koch-Mehrin (ADLE, Germany appealed for a several speed Europe and said that this already existed in several areas. Sarkozy concurred but said that before they could not go forward in the direction of a several speed Europe before creating a Europe in which everyone can participate. He also said that if they all allowed themselves exceptions, “where would the European project of our founding fathers go”. Koch-Mehrin had two other demands to address to Mr Sarkozy, “you are a ladies' man, do something to improve the position of women” in European politics. Then, on the subject of the seat of the EP, he said “leave the European Parliament the freedom to decide where it wants its seat to be” (the German MEP argues in favour of Brussels as the only location for the EP). Werner Langen (EPP-ED, Germany) had only compliments for Mr Sarkozy: “This is my 29th presidency, and I have never heard such a convincing presentation by a president of the European Council”, he said. Robert Goebbels (PES, Luxembourg) sounded a note of caution against too many unilateral initiatives by Europeans for combating climate change, to the detriment of European industry. The 27 member states only emit 14% of total global emissions of CO2 “which means that European initiatives will be pointless unless a comparable effort is made in the USA, China and other emerging countries”, Mr Goebbels said. Of course, Mr Sarkozy replied, but the EU must act and set an example for the others. The EU cannot allow itself to wait for the others. “Nothing is worse then inertia”, he asserted. José Ignacio Salafranca (EPP-ED, Spain) said it is necessary to have a “European dimension for sport” and suggested that, during the Olympic Games in Beijing, EU sportsmen and women should also wear a small European emblem as well as their national flag. Mr Sarkozy shares the idea that sport plays an important role in creating a European feeling and suggests, for his part, that there should be a “special column” in the result tables accounting for medals won by EU sportsmen and women. On the subject of the debate on the stance taken by the Polish president on the Lisbon Treaty, the former prime minister, Jerzy Buzek (EPP-ED), pointed out that “Poland supports the treaty. A very large majority of Poles are pro-European” (“I have never doubted Poland's European commitment”, Mr Sarkozy added). Genowefa Grabowska (PES, Poland) informed the EP that the Polish Diet was going to adopt, on Thursday, a declaration officially calling on President Kaczynski to sign Lisbon Treaty ratification.
At a press conference, Sarkozy answered questions inter alia on:
- the Union for the Mediterranean and the latest diatribe by Muammar Gaddafi: “It's not my job to re-establish the Roman Empire,” said the French President in response to the recent statements by the Libyan leader on the new European colonialism. “Until now, in the Near- and Middle-East, Europe just meant lots of money for little, if not insignificant, political clout,” he stated, pointing out that only one Arab leader had taken part in the launch of the Barcelona Process. He welcomed the decision of all the Arab, with the exception of Gaddafi, and Israeli leaders to attend the Paris Summit on Sunday 13 July.
- the missile shield: “I am very interested by the comments of President Medvedev on security from Vancouver to Vladivostok,” the French President said, welcoming the Kremlin's change of attitude. If he didn't want to interfere in Polish and Czech decisions on the missile shield, it is because he felt they should “at least be discussed among ourselves”.
- Mladic and Karadzic: “These people have to be made to answer for their actions,” Sarkozy said, noting, however, that the Serbian government had just been put in place and, right now, a positive message had to be sent to Serbia on its prospects for Europe. “There will be conditions. Serbia will have to meet its international obligations. We will not give in on this,” he added. (O.J./H.B./trnasl.jl/rh/rt)