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Belgium Prime Minister Belçika Başbakanı Opportunities For Europe A unique and crucial moment It is not the first time Belgium is taking up the presidency of the European Union. This year, however, we take up the presidency at a unique and crucial moment in recent European history. Within a decade, the European Union will have grown from its present 15 to 27 and perhaps even more member states. This is hardly a question of figures and arithmetic. We are witnessing a peaceful revolution without any precedent in the past. For the first time in recorded history, nearly all European states - North and South, East and West - will join the same Union. But the uniqueness of what we are going through these days goes even further. For the first time, Europe will be united by consent, not by force. For the first time this unification will not be the result of conquest but of the will of peoples freely wanting and willing to join. For a continent torn apart by hundreds of wars in thousands of years, this is absolutely new. Indeed, about fifty years ago, a new Europe was born. This new Europe is based on co-operation, not separation. It is an inclusive, not an exclusive union. It is a democratic Europe, not an autocratic one. We uphold both the ancient values of liberty and equality but also the newer values of growth, progress and opportunity for all and not only for the happy few. And we want an open, a tolerant and a humanist Europe, taking up its unique responsibility for European and non-European nations alike. That is what "enlargement" is all about. It is about restoring through peaceful means the historic, philosophic and geographical unity of Europe. And it will add for the first time in history the political unification of the continent. That is what it is all about. The enlargement of the European Union is as crucial for European history as the reunification of Germany was for German history. At the same time, the European Union is in the grip of an ongoing institutional reform. Within one decade, during the 1990s, we moved from the treaty of Maastricht through the treaty of Amsterdam to the treaty of Nice. In Maastricht we turned the European Community into the European Union. In Amsterdam we paved the way for one Economic and Monetary Union, one European Central Bank and one European currency. In Nice we institutionnally made room for twelve new member states. But the job is not finished yet. Institutional reform to strengthen the Union is here to stay for the coming years. In many fields further reform is in the air. European political cooperation is growing every day. Particularly in the field of foreign policy and security we are closer than ever before to a common approach. The same can be said for vital elements of a common social policy. Yet we do not have a social and a political union that can be compared with the economic and monetary union, as we do not yet have a common policy concerning asylumseekers and migration flows. In these fields the Belgian presidency wants the Union to achieve tangible results in the near future, not to slow down enlargement but to make it work. I do not believe enlargement and reform to exclude one another. Since the founding of the European Communities in the 1950s the making of the European Union goes hand in hand with enlarging the Union. The one implies the other. No real European Union can be made without enlarging the Union. No enlargement can work without reforming and adapting the Union to its new tasks. The Belgian presidency During its presidency Belgium wishes to make progress over a wide range of policy fields of the Union. In this way the Union should become more transparent, more efficient, more coherent and more powerful and should have a larger democratic legitimacy. Therefore, the Belgian Government has identified six main themes for the Presidency :
The introduction of the Euro On 1 January 2002, the Euro becomes a tangible reality. Never before has the European Union so radically entered the lives of the citizens. For the first time in the history of the Union, citizens will be faced with a concrete, tangible result of European integration. A successful introduction of the Euro, will increase the trust of the citizen in the Union as well as the credibility of the single currency. A successful preparation for bringing the Euro coins and notes into circulation, is one of the most important aims of the Belgian Presidency. A monthly monitoring by the Commission and the Euro group should make it possible to closely watch the measures taken by each Member State. In this context, it will be verified in particular whether these measures run parallel. In addition, a huge information campaign will be launched. The Euro is still not sufficiently well known. Such campaigns are necessary so that the physical introduction of the Euro can be organised smoothly and serenely for the whole of the European population. Through this communication, it will be particularly necessary to remove possible worries of both citizens, specially the vulnerable social groups, and business. Indicators relating to quality of work The Belgian Presidency will include a strong social dimension and will pay special attention to the development of the European social model. Special emphasis will be put on quality of work, larger participation of employees with regard to economic mutations, equal opportunities, modernising social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and the sustainability and refinancing of pensions. The aim of full employment and the efforts towards quality of work must go hand in hand. During the European Council of Stockholm in March 2001, Belgium was given the task of refining and establishing the qualitative as well as the quantitative employment indicators. On the quantitative level, the presidency will bring improvements in employment statistics, amongst others in the field of the employment rate. On the qualitative level, just as every year in the second semester, the National Action Programmes regarding employment will be assessed during the Belgian presidency. In this assessment, quality of work will be a central concern. On the basis of the national action plans and the work of the Commission, a series of quality indicators will be elaborated as a first step towards a European strategy in this field. Modernising social security and the sustainability of pensions The European Union has an important responsibility in the field of social security. All Member States are faced with the same challenges in this field: ageing populations, rising health care costs, the need to adapt social security to new realities such as changed family forms or new forms of work. The Belgian presidency is determined to focus discussions on the sustainability of pension schemes. Between 2000 and 2040, the ratio between the pensioned population and the rest of the European population will double. The aim is to achieve, by the end of 2001, agreement on some common goals that guarantee permanent security for pensioners and guarantee at the same time public finances. An impetus to a common asylum and migration policy At the European Council of Tampere in October 1999, an ambitious and detailed action programme was approved which should lead to the establishment of a common area of freedom, security and justice. This implies an open and a controllable area which is based on the European principles of openness, freedom and hospitality, solidarity, non-discrimination, respect for human rights and human dignity and respect for the value of a multi-cultural society. At the European Council of Brussels in December 2001, the Belgian presidency will assess the progress. The presidency will give priority to the establishment of a common asylum and migration policy. Regarding asylum, emphasis will be put on harmonising asylum granting procedures and reception of refugees. Regarding immigration, an impulse will be given to an umbrella policy containing the different aspects of the problem: prevention and development of partnerships with the countries of origin, the management of migration flows, integration and employment. The Presidency will intensify the combat against illegal immigration, first and foremost regarding trafficking in human beings and smuggling of human beings. Specifically, in the context of combating trafficking in human beings, a "high impact" type action will be organised at the future external borders of the European Union. Sustainable development and the need for a better quality of life The challenge for sustainable development lies both in making it possible for citizens to live in a healthy environment and putting economic progress to the service of man, through continually improving living standards and quality of life. This pre-supposes a reorientation of a number of non-sustainable production and consumption patterns. This re-orientation is one of the major concerns of the Belgian Presidency. Central to it is the implementation of the European strategy for sustainable development, which will be approved by the European Council of Göteborg in June 2001. This new strategy aims to direct the whole of the policies of the European Union towards sustainable development. The Belgian presidency will give a first impetus to the implementation of this strategy, specifically through establishing precise goals and concrete indicators . The European Food Authority Recent agricultural and food crises have clearly shown that, in the area of consumer protection, absolute priority must be given to food safety. The Belgian presidency is determined to establish, by the end of this year at the latest, a permanent European food authority. The presidency favours an independent agency rather than a body with merely an advisory capacity such as proposed by the Commission. The institution of such an agency should be combined with strengthening controls on the complete food chain. Enlargement: towards the restoration of the European Identity From a historical viewpoint, the achievement of enlargement touches the very soul of the European Union. It is about sharing common values such as political democracy, respect of human rights, social protection of the weak, protection of minorities, market economy and peaceful co-existence within the rule of law. Through enlargement, the geographical, political and cultural identity of Europe is resumed. Consequently, enlargement is one of the most important priorities of the Belgian presidency. The presidency, in co-operation with the Commission, will continue the accession negotiations according to the schedule and the timetable approved by the European Council of Nice. Priority will be given to the establishment of common positions of the Union, and on wide orientation discussions at the European Councils of Ghent and Brussels-Laken. Each Applicant State will be treated on its own merits and on the basis of a complete and effective implementation of the acquis communautaire. The European Security and Defence Policy Public opinion favours a further development of Europe's own defence identity, as was shown by a recent Euro barometer. This development is central to the Belgian presidency. The European Council of Brussels in December 2001 must declare the European Union operational in terms of crisis management. This means that by the end of the presidency the structures must be permanent and the procedures must be approved. The Belgian presidency will take all initiatives necessary to achieve this aim. To make this possible, a second conference will take place during the presidency to examine the capacities necessary to achieve the Headline Goal in 2003. Besides, the presidency will continue negotiations with a view to reaching a permanent agreement on co-operation between the European Union and NATO. However, the European Union should not limit itself to the question of what it can do in a conflict close to its borders, which has escalated into a violent crisis. The Union should also be prepared to answer the question of what it can do to prevent the conflict from escalating into violence. The Belgian presidency will continue the activities connected with crisis prevention and the civilian aspects of crisis management. The emphasis will lie on the police aspect, on training of personnel, on strengthening the rule of law and on civil protection. Strengthening the European voice in the world Concerning foreign policy the incoming Belgian presidency will pay special attention to Russia, Central-Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. As far as Russia is concerned, it is in the interest of both parties to develop a strategic partnership and intense co-operation between the European Union and Russia. The presidency will propose an action plan for the implementation of the EU-Russia common strategy. During the European-Russian Summit in October, special attention will be given to economic relations between the two parties, to the consequences of the enlargement of the Union, in particular for the region of Kaliningrad, to the development of a European security and defence policy, as well as to questions in connection with justice and internal affairs. As far as the political dialogue with Russia is concerned, the stabilisation of the situation in the Caucasus and the strengthening of the rule of law will also be discussed. The Belgian presidency wishes to bring about a greater involvement of the European Union in the peace process in Central Africa and the region of the Great Lakes. Along with the competent authorities, the presidency will draw up an inventory of humanitarian and rehabilitation needs in crucial sectors such as public health, education, infrastructure and justice, as well as needs concerning the democratisation process. On the basis of this inventory, the Belgian presidency will propose an action plan with a view to peace and development in Central Africa. The Belgian presidency will pay special attention to the Balkans and wishes in particular to pursue the process launched at the Zagreb Summit. Essential to that process is regional co-operation and economic development. The presidency will attempt to move forward with the negotiations on stabilisation and association treaties with the countries of the region. During the second semester of 2001, such an agreement could be concluded with one or more countries Concerning the Middle East the Belgian Presidency will continue the actions of the Fifteen and encourage the parties involved to resolve their disputes through dialogue and negotiations so that the peace process can be taken up again. The Belgian presidency will keep close contacts with the United States and all the parties involved in the region. The Declaration of Brussels-Laeken With the new Treaty of Nice, the door has been opened once and for all for the biggest enlargement operation in the history of the European Union. A Union with 25 or 27 or even more member States will look completely different to the Union that we know today. It is therefore absolutely essential to already begin thinking about how the European Union should look after enlargement, which competence it must have, how it should be financed, which institutions it must it have, the manner in which it will take decisions, and so on. The European Council of Nice in December 2000 approved a "Declaration on the Future of the Union". This declaration calls for a wide and profound debate on the future of the European Union. Such a debate should include not only the member States, but also the candidate member States, the national parliaments, the European parliament and the broad public opinion. The Belgian Presidency was given the task in Nice to draw the parameters of this debate by the end of 2001 in the Declaration of Brussels-Laeken, which in its turn should lead to a new Intergovernmental Conference in 2004. In the "Declaration on the Future of the Union" which was approved in Nice, four themes are mentioned which must be dealt with in the debate. The Belgian Presidency, however, does plan to widen the agenda into a global project for Europe. This project must provide the answer to the fundamental question of "how to structure political life in an enlarged Union?". In order to guarantee that all questions about the future of the Union can be broached, a framework must be established in Brussels. This should be possible taking into account that much broader concepts lie behind mere institutional issues. Thus, the objectives of the European Union are to a large degree determined by the organisation of competence - "Kompetenzordnung". Indeed, according to part of the public opinion, the Union sometimes interferes too much with the life of the citizen; the Union sometimes makes unjustified use of the legal basis offered by the treaties to encroach upon the competence of the Member States. To listen again to the citizen is a guarantee for the integration process. The aim of the new competence organisation could be to define more clearly the competence of the Union and that of the Member States. But this new organisation of competence must not paralyse the integration dynamics. According to recent studies, public opinion wishes the European Union to take charge of its own defence identity, of a true common foreign policy and of a common asylum and migration policy. Other elements of the debate are also determining the future of Europe : the financing of the European Union, the decision making procedures, the institutional architecture and the inter-institutional balance, the role of the regions, the treaty structure, a modernised méthode communautaire and the role of social dialogue and of civil society - all these topics must be addressed. The Belgian presidency does not wish to attempt to formulate finial answers for all these subjects. But it does hope that during the European Council of Brussels a declaration can be approved which will ask the right questions and in this way open the necessary doors for a wide, profound debate in the years to come. Looking for a European vision Turning back to the Euro-American Community I want to close this long list of European challenges with the visions of two great Europeans, a French novelist and an English politician, Victor Hugo and Winston Churchill. They lived in a very different world, the one nearly hundred years after the other. But they both combined a European with an Atlantic vision. In 1849 Victor Hugo probably was to first to see the coming of what he called the United States of Europe. Let me quote him in his native French. Un jour viendra où vous France, vous Russie, vous Italie, vous Angleterre, vous Allemagne, vous toutes, nations du continent, sans perdre vos qualités distinctes et votre glorieuse individualité, vous vous fondrez étroitement dans une unité supérieure. Un jour viendra où il n'y aura plus d'autres champs de bataille que les marchés s'ouvrant aux commerce et les esprits s'ouvrant aux idées". Almost one century later the UK's wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, adopted nearly the same vision in Zurich in 1946. We can still hear Churchill's call for "a kind of United States of Europe, to recreate the European Family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must re-create the European Family in a regional structure called, it may be, the United States of Europe. If at first all the States of Europe are not willing or able to join the Union, we must nevertheless proceed to assemble and combine those who will and those who can." These are the words to be remembered by all European nations willing to join the Union and by all Europeans willing to go forward in the same spirit and embracing a similar vision. I am sure they will always find Americans at their side, for our unions stand for a shared past, a united present and a free future. I dearly wish the American European Community Association to safeguard this common heritage throughout the new century. GUY VERHOFSTADT: "AVRUPA İÇİN FIRSATLAR" Belçika Başbakanı Guy VERHOFSTADT American European Community Associaton'ın yapılan toplantısında özetle şöyle dedi: Belçika'nın AB Başkanlığı konusunda, önce Avrupa ile ilgili hayallerimin, Atlantik ve Avrupa-Amerika dostluğu konusundaki olumlu hislerimi etkilemeyeceğini ifade etmek istiyorum. Belçika AB'nin daha saydam, etkili ve güçlü olması için çaba gösterecektir. 1 Ocak 2001'de Euro'nun günlük yaşama girmesi üzerine, AB vatandaşları AB'nin varlığının ilk elle tutulabilir sonucuyla karşılaşacaklardır. Ortak bir Avrupa sosyal modelinin geliştirilmesi konusu ele alınacaktır. Avrupa Konseyi'nin Ekim 1999 Tampere toplantısında onaylanan ve ortak bir özgürlük, güvenlik ve adalet alanı teşkil edilmesine ilişkin çalışma programı konusunda kaydedilen ilerlemeler, Aralık 2001'de Brüksel'de yapılacak toplantıda değerlendirilecektir. Yaşadığımız krizler, tüketicinin korunması alanında gıda güvenliğine öncelik verilmesinin önemini ortaya koymuştur. Dönemimizin öncelikli konularından bir diğeri AB'nin genişlemesi olacaktır. Kamuoyu Avrupa'nın kendi savunma kimliğinin geliştirilmesi yönündedir. Dış ilişkilerde, Rusya, Orta Afrika, Balkanlar ve Orta Do?u özel ilgi alanlarımızı oluşturacaklardır. Aralık 2000'de Nis'de onaylanan "Birliğin Geleceğine İlişkin Beyanname" konusunda, Belçika Başkanlığına, 2001 yılının sonuna kadar bu tartışmanın parametrelerini oluşturma görevi verilmiş bulunmaktadır_ Avrupa-Amerika dostluğu konusunda, V. Hugo ve W. Churchill'in Avrupa Birleşik Devletleri ile ilgili vizyonlarına değinmek ve AB'ye katılmak isteyen tüm ulusların Amerika'yı yanlarında görmek isteyecekleri yönündeki inancımı belirtmek istiyorum. spot: The new Europe is based on co-operation, not separation |