Two challenges” “

“It’s a question of knowing what type of Europe we wish for our children and how much we are willing to pay to have it”, declared José Manuel Durao Barroso , President of the European Commission. Barroso was trying to stir the waters in preparation for the informal summit at Hampton Court, in Great Britain, on Friday 27 October, at which the heads of state and of government of the 25 will discuss social Europe. A session of the European Parliament at Strasbourg is also being dedicated to the summit on 26 October, with a dialogue between EP, Council and Commission. Hampton Court: TOWARDS A LAME-DUCK summit? The current British Presidency of the European Council of Ministers had made public the date of the summit at the end of September. It had been announced in advance by British premier Tony Blair shortly after assuming the rotating leadership of the EU at the start of the summer. The “meeting will be informal”, Blair had explained at the outset. He fixed a two-day agenda, but this was later reduced to a single day, with an evident insistence on the need to limit the issues to be discussed and establishing a priori that the meeting would not be called to make “any formal decision”. A lame-duck summit, in essence. “The main theme – this is the line laid down by the Presidency of the Council – will be the collective path of the Union with a view to the realization of its economic and social objectives”. As if to further dampen expectations, the EU Presidency has made it clear that “the Financial Perspectives and the Constitutional Treaty will not be examined”. The Lisbon Strategy, formulated by the EU in 2000 to reconcile competitiveness and social cohesion, will instead be placed at the centre of attention. THE DEBATE AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT. It cannot be excluded that the European Parliament (meeting from 24 to 27 October to tackle such issues as bird flu, the first reading of the budget for 2006 and some important legislative proposals for the defence of the environment) will ask more of the British premier: a renewed effort to reach an agreement on the Financial Perspectives for the period 2007-2013 and a determined effort to give substance to the Lisbon Strategy. Any further delays on these two fronts, combined with the impasse on the ratification of the Constitution, would in fact represent a dangerous cocktail for the future of the European Union. And it is on just these questions that Barroso put pen to paper last week and wrote two documents (in the form of letters addressed to Blair and to the President of the EP, Josep Borrell) that spell out the priorities of the Commission for the Hampton Court summit. The first document is entitled “European values in a globalized world” and concerns more comprehensively the vision of the future EU. The second letter contains “Five proposals for re-launching the negotiations on the financial perspectives”: it concentrates on the plurennial budget of the 25 which, according to Barroso, must see the light of day by the end of the year. FACED BY THE PROBLEMS OF GLOBALIZATION AND AGEING. “We are faced by two main challenges: the first is the globalization of the economy. The second is the progressive ageing of the European population. Of course – explained Barroso in presenting the two documents -, this is also a good sign: it means people are living longer and better. On the other hand, it reduces the active population and creates problems of sustainability. There are ever-less people in work: we have a growing number of pensioners and 19 million unemployed. We must therefore act together, investing to boost economic competitiveness on the one hand and reforming the social models on the other. We don’t want to standardise welfare systems or harmonise tax systems, but undoubtedly we need to move in the direction of greater coordination”. The head of the Commission maintains that “Europe must reform and modernise its policies if it wishes to preserve its values”. BUDGET: FIVE CONCRETE PROPOSALS. Barroso, overcoming the immobility hitherto imputed to the Executive, openly maintains that “the budgetary resources discussed in the European Council in June are inadequate in relation to the needs of the Union”. Member states don’t seem to have any intention to spend more for the enlarged Europe. In its document dedicated to common finance, the Commission asks that more be “invested in research and innovation” and that “the shocks of economic globalization be mitigated” by the creation of a special fund. It also proposes that “the agricultural reforms underway be consolidated and completed”, by allocating, from 2009 on, more money to rural development but, at the same time, by reviewing the whole expenditure in the sector. Linked to these points is the idea of “opening the way to a modernization of the EU budget”: “We must achieve a ‘lisbonization’ of the budget”, says Barroso. Lastly, the Commission urges that resources be allocated to “reinforcing the external policies” of the Union, in order to give greater political influence to Europe on the world scene. —————————————————- ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1425 N.ro relativo : 74 Data pubblicazione : 27/10/05