President Prodi's Speech on the Dutch Presidency at the EP

FR - DE - IT

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The start of the Dutch Presidency is an appropriate time to reflect on our achievements in the last few years and to discuss the very important tasks that still have to be completed before the end of our term of office.

Tomorrow you will be addressed by the President-designate of the next Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso. I feel that I am in the ideal position to wish him and the members he will choose every success.

To my friend José Manuel I can say unequivocally that we have worked hard and well in the last five years and we are leaving a renewed, dynamic and strong Commission.

These are achievements that cannot be taken completely for granted - they have had a considerable impact on the nature and strength of the EU.

It has been a privilege for me to head this Commission. Its members form an extraordinary team, one of which every European citizen can be proud of.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The greatest achievement of the last five years has been the removal of the wall that divided the continent into two for half a century.

On the first of May this year, a singular political achievement was realised. Now more than ever, the strengths of the EU model and the values on which it is founded, namely peace, freedom and solidarity, come to the fore.

I am convinced that, with enlargement, we have improved the security and the prospects for growth of the entire Union.

On the crest of this success we should now complete the unification of Europe by opening the door to the Balkans. The Macedonian Government has already applied for accession and is moving with studied determination towards that goal.

Croatia is already moving down the same path; the other countries will follow, each at its own pace, and I know that the Commission will always lend its support.

Ever since I entered into office, I have believed that only the EU can guarantee lasting stability and development in this part of our continent. Only the European model can help these people, so close to us, to overcome old and new divisions.

Furthermore, the new neighbourhood policy has given us an original and realistic formula for putting forward a new model for our increasingly closer relationship with our new neighbours, creating a ring of friendly countries throughout the region, from Morocco to Russia.

Another major strategic objective of this Commission was to secure a new, broader political, economic and human region. This objective has today become a new political reality.

In its five years in office, the Commission also promoted economic and social renewal in the EU through commitments to ensure macroeconomic stability and unstinting efforts to create the conditions for future growth.

The most important event was undoubtedly the introduction of the euro.

The single currency has maintained its promise of stability. In these difficult years for the world economy, our economy has shown that it is well able to resist outside shocks.

There have been no exchange rate storms, no public finance crises and inflation has remained low. Yet consider what would have happened if we had not had the single currency.

And last but not least of course is the fact that the first Constitution for Europe, which I have discussed at length this morning, saw the light of day while this Commission was in office.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Whilst enlargement and the Constitution may be the most visible achievements, we should not forget the many other successes of this Commission.

I cannot list them all but I must mention the extraordinary work done on state aid and on the management of the stability and growth pact. Here the Commission has kept faith with its role as guardian of the Treaties and has ensured absolute equality of treatment between all the parties concerned.

We can of course discuss the rules that we have introduced, we can consider how to modify them, how to adapt them better to the new economic reality. But it is specifically the Commission's task to apply the existing rules, impartially and solely in the common interest.

Nor should we forget the continuing effort to build the internal market, where we have often had to overcome the resistance and the lack of cohesion of Member States.

Thanks to this work, the European consumer, compared with five years ago, now spends less to fly, to surf the Internet or to make a payment from one EU country to another.

Here I should add that there is no real growth in the EU if it does not involve every one of its regions without leaving any behind.

Thanks to our efforts, the last few years have seen a clear reduction in differences in income and in development prospects between the different regions.

Naturally, there is of course much still to do in the future, especially in order to respond to the demand for solidarity emanating from countries that have only just joined the EU.

If the euro helps to ensure financial stability, our future growth depends on the renewal of our economic system as provided for in the Lisbon agenda.

As you are aware, this is still a sensitive point as the results have not matched expectations but I can assure you that the project would have come to a complete standstill without our constant pressure on the Member States.

We have almost reached the halfway point in the strategy planned for the whole decade, and there is still much to do. I can state, however, that the Commission has built the solid foundations needed for a successful outcome.

The Lisbon agenda is based as much on economic renewal as on the creation of a really competitive knowledge-based society.

That is why my Commission set itself the task of significantly increasing funds for research, education and training in Europe.

Together with the plans for setting up networks of excellence, we leave our proposal to double the Community research budget for 2007-2013 to the next Commission.

As regards education, one of the best days of our mandate was the day on which the one millionth university student went to study abroad under the Erasmus programme.

Removing this frontier helps not only to create the knowledge-based society but also to produce a generation of true European citizens.

Mobility and European citizenship are indeed closely linked and it is especially by relying on young people and students that we lay the foundations for the Union of tomorrow.

I am therefore delighted that the Dutch Presidency regards mobility and young people as one of its priorities for the next six months.

The same notion also applies to our external frontiers. It is vital to take full advantage of the external dimension of European education, training and youth policies.

This Commission launched the programmes of university cooperation and exchanges with Mediterranean countries, the Balkans and Central Asia.

The latest arrival in this family is the Erasmus Mundus programme which will bring thousands of students from the rest of the world to our universities and will help to restore Europe to its role of leader in research and higher education, thus strengthening its competitiveness and its capacity to attract.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Now that I have listed some of the main achievements that have occurred during my term of office, let us take a look at what remains to be done before the end of October.

First, we shall continue our efforts to prepare the new financial perspective, one of the most important policy initiatives of this Commission.

As you know, last week the Commission approved a legislative package which complements and follows on from the policy programme adopted last February.

Our strategy is simple: first we defined the political priorities for the period after 2007 and then we put forward the financial framework needed to achieve the agreed objectives. We thus focused on content and objectives and not only on the budget.

We are extremely satisfied with the results so far as we proved able to meet the challenge of the new tasks entrusted by the European Council to our Commission in the last few years. Furthermore, although by 2007 the EU will have over 100 million new citizens, our new proposal leaves the present own resources limit unchanged.

Thanks to rigid budgetary discipline and to careful programming we can even increase the number of EU members to 27 without spending more than 1.14% of gross national income.

The fact is that Europe can indeed make a difference but if it lacks the financial resources the European added value will remain an empty promise.

We have prepared our proposal with the aim of maximising the efficiency of Community spending. We can show that a euro spent at European level yields more than a euro spent at national level.

The priorities of the EU, so often confirmed by the European Council, are competitiveness, European citizenship and the role of Europe in the world. We take these decisions very seriously and intend to find the necessary resources in the Community budget to put them into practice.

All the institutions, Commission, Council and Parliament, have a common duty to keep faith with their commitments and to respond to the expectations of the public.

If the European Union does not manage to keep its promises, it will lose the trust of the public.

Since the historic events of 1 May 2004, the day on which the Union gained ten new countries and 75 million new citizens, we have continued our efforts towards the unification of Europe.

Negotiations with Bulgaria are technically over. As regards Romania, I intend to do everything in my power to carry negotiations forward as rapidly as possible and thus comply with commitments made which, it will be recalled, are the outcome of the negotiations conducted in 2004, provided that the country is ready.

By October my Commission will have adopted the report and the opinion on the initiation of accession negotiations with Turkey. Our opinion will form the basis of the Council decisions and public expectations are high.

It was without hesitation that I accepted the mandate entrusted to me in December 2002 by the European Council to present a report on Turkey's compliance with the political criteria of Copenhagen and to send a report on this matter to the Council.

I can confirm that we have every intention of seeing this task through and presenting the results of our labours by the beginning of October.

It would be premature to reveal the contents of the report, but I can say that we are collecting analyses, facts and evidence at every level. We can thus ensure that our studies are truly exhaustive and absolutely objective.

Total impartiality is what we owe our young people, our fellow citizens and the Turkish people who hope to join us.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I started my talk by explaining that, in my opinion, my Commission is leaving behind a strong and reinvigorated institution.

I have put forward several reasons for this, and there are doubtless many more.

But the Commission is not simply made up of its Members. I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all the women and men who keep our institution alive and growing.

In Brussels and in the other European Commission offices, I have encountered levels of excellence, competence and dedication that would put many national administrations to shame. And this will be one of the best memories I will take with me of my time at the head of the Commission.

We all - Commissioners, officials and all those involved - believe in Europe and believe that the Union is the only means of giving the continent a peaceful future of prosperity and independence in the world.

This is our real strength.

Thank you.

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