Ladies and gentlemen,
Our hosts tonight kindly asked me to talk not only about the goals of our Presidency but also added an interesting question: can the time of our Presidency be a turning point?
You will agree with me that even if it were a turning point – contemporaries would not be in a position to tell. The importance of historic events hardly ever corresponds to what contemporaries perceive. So let us not resort to “pre-emptive” dramatic expressions. What I would, however, hope to see during this semester is an upwardly moving trend.
Last summer we found ourselves faced with the situation of 2 negative referenda on the Constitutional Treaty and the failure by the European Council to reach an agreement on the financing of the Union for the years to come. If you opened the European page of whatever newspaper you chose, it was full of gloom and the most frequent term you found was the presumed “EU crisis”. The more you read about it, the more depressed you became.
Not that all problems have been solved since then, but some things have moved into the right direction and I would not hesitate to say in stockmarket terms: I think Europe might be moving from a “bear” to a “bull” type of climate. Against all gloomy predictions, the European Council managed last December to agree on the basic framework for the new 7-year financial perspectives. As far as the debate on the future of Europe – or the Constitutional process - is concerned, my assessment is that we have at least stopped being hypnotised by what happened. Instead we are starting to realise that we have to concentrate on the future, knowing well that there is a long way ahead of us and that we will have to show more perseverance than we thought a year ago. Improving the general mood is important. What Europe lacks most at the moment is - arguably - a bit of more self-confidence.
Having said this, I would, however, add that so far the presidency experience taught me, reality can sometimes be rather different from what one has planned. Most of the problems the Austrian presidency had to tackle so far, had actually not been anticipated. I shall revert to this later more specifically when I get to talk about Foreign policy.
But let me start by explaining our plans. In fact the gist of our presidency programme can be summarized in 4 points:
As you can see, our programme is based on what we perceive to be citizens’ main concerns. Citizens expect the European Union to provide some sort of insurance certificate for what one might call the “European way of life”. I am talking here of a wide concept, which stands for some of the most important achievements in 20th century European politics: peace and stability, the rule of law, human rights and the respect for minorities, solidarity, pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, equality of men and women, the aim of full employment, sustainable jobs, social security, healthcare, a healthy environment, education, security and last but not least the respect of diversity.
If we are to preserve this model for future generations, we need to revive our economy. We need to do everything we can to increase our competitiveness and create new jobs. The European Council in March 2006 will put a particular focus on these subjects, that is on stepping up research – after all human capital is our most valuable raw material for the future, on improving the economic environment - in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, on fighting youth unemployment among other things by creating incentives for young people in order to give them a perspective.
The most important task for European politicians of our generation is to prove that Europe can help to solve tomorrow’s problems. As Prime Minister Blair recently put it, we have to “demonstrate visibly the 21st century relevance of Europe“. I could not agree more. We have to convince citizens that Europe can make a difference when it comes to fighting problems like for instance the dark side of globalisation.
In fact, Europe is not part of the problem or the problem, Europe is rather part of the solution to problems due to other causes. Economic and technological change has become very fast, sometime even too fast for many people to keep up with. So the main challenge for the European Union is to demonstrate that retreating into one’s snail-shell is no solution. We have to demonstrate that Europe can take the breeze of international competition as long as it manages to use its trump-cards properly.
Of course we have to make sure that the Union has the necessary funds for its policies. We are fortunate that during the last European Council under the British presidency an agreement on the corner-stones has been found. However, this is not the end of the story. The agreement achieved in December now needs to be transformed into an Interinstitutional Agreement with the European Parliament and the European Commission. We know these negotiations will be far from easy. The European Parliament has become a challenging interlocutor for the Council. So we hope that all parties involved will show some sense of realism. The Austrian presidency will do its best to facilitate an early solution of all the outstanding problems.
Let me briefly mention the ongoing debate on the future of Europe and the Constitutional Treaty. Let us be honest: People are not primarily interested in questions like whether Europe should have a Constitution. They are interested in tangible results. Citizens are requesting a debate on what kind of Europe we need, on the boarders the European Union, on the duties and responsibilities and so on. In fact, opinion polls show us that many people feel they have never been involved properly in questions of this kind. Against this background the European Council initiated a so-called “reflection period” in last June, the results of which will have to be assessed next June under our presidency. In addition to that we will also have to preside over the decision on how to take the future debate from there.
But each presidency has its limits. A presidency can only facilitate this kind of debate and thus act as an honest broker. We felt from the very beginning that it was our task to give an impulse to this debate. We did so by getting in touch with all Member states. On the basis of these first soundings one thing became very clear to us: There will be no instant solution. Opinions still diverge and Member States will not be ready in the course of the next few months to take a clear-cut decision about what exactly should happen to the Constitutional Treaty. So, the last thing we should do at that stage is to push this kind of subject prematurely. A clearer idea of how we should proceed - a sort of roadmap setting out some of the issues the EU needs to concentrate on in the near future, a framework which will allow the European Union to inter-act in the best possible way, in order to take the debate forward, is what we would like to achieve by the end of our presidency.
The most important task of course will be to keep all Member States on board. The common achievements of the last 50 years are a valuable asset which we should not put at risk. Allowing Member States to wander off in different directions would be a mistake at this stage. Let me be very clear about this: The European Union is a common project of all Member States – in fact the first common project of the enlarged Union. At this stage 14 Member States have ratified the Treaty; one or two more may follow in the next months. A number of Member States are waiting to see what will happen. Now, we have to see and to evaluate how to proceed in the future…
However, in the meantime we should be aware of one thing: The draft European Constitution is the best attempt so far to make the European Union more democratic, more efficient and fit for future challenges. We can not ignore the present situation of two negative referenda, but we must equally accept the successful ratifications we had so far. The fact that two referenda failed, does not mean that the problems addressed by the Constitution have gone away. On the contrary: they will become even more evident as enlargement negotiations go on. I was duly impressed when Prime Minister Blair confirmed - and I quote - that “we will need to return to the issues around the European Constitution. A European Union of 25 cannot function properly with today's rules of governance. Having spent 6 months as EU President, I am a good witness to that.”
Another major item on our agenda is enlargement. As far as the enlargement process is concerned, the year 2006 will be decisive in various ways: Romania and Bulgaria are already on the final stretch on their way towards EU membership. With Turkey and Croatia, the European Commission will go on screening the 35 negotiation chapters well into this autumn. In the meantime, the Council will probably decide to open the first negotiation chapters during our Presidency.
Further on, a priority of our presidency is to keep the countries of South-East Europe firmly on the EU agenda. The Austrian Presidency will place particular emphasis on the confirmation and successful continuation of the Stabilisation and Association Process of this region. In fact the European Perspective is not only the best possible catalyst converter for the reform process but also a unifying element for large parts of the population.
The fact that so many countries are interested in moving ever closer to the EU, has given rise to the concept of a European Neighbourhood Policy. The idea is to increase the Union’s zone of stability to countries which - at this stage - do not have the perspective of membership. The EU Neighbourhood Policy is based on a series of Action Plans with countries in Eastern Europe and along the southern rim of the Mediterranean.
All in all, the European Union has become a real actor on the world scene. Let me just mention a few words about some of the most recent challenges: The first day of our presidency coincided with the beginning of a dispute on Russian gas. The EU did not only play an important role in ensuring that deliveries were not curtailed, it also stepped up efforts to ensure energy security. Recent Eurobarometer polls clearly showed that a majority of European citizens want energy decisions to be taken at a Community level. This has not always been the case. We will put the issue of energy policy high on the priority list of the spring summit in March - with all its different aspects reaching from energy security to the diversification of supply and the promotion of renewable energies.
Some days later various Iranian actions had been straining relationship with the EU: the nuclear issue, Iranian statements on Israel, its position on the Holocaust and the Middle East Peace Process, the situation of human rights and Iran’s involvement in Iraq. Things deteriorated when Iran resumed uranium enrichment-related activities in defiance of repeated calls by the IAEA Board of Governors and the international community. The recent attacks on European missions in Tehran were totally unjustifiable and unacceptable.
A few days after the news from Iran, the election results in Palestine triggered off another unexpected development which turned out to be quite a challenge for the European Union.
The dispute over the Danish cartoons in parts of the Islamic world as well as in Europe was another unfortunate development. The European Union’s position in this regard has been clear throughout: Freedom of expression is a fundamental right and a cornerstone of our democratic societies and values. The freedom of the press needs to be guaranteed. However, many Muslims have expressed their dismay at the cartoons. Their religious beliefs and cultural sensitivities should equally be respected. But one thing must be absolutely clear: acts of violence cannot be justified.
Unfortunately, events have demonstrated that there is a lack of dialogue between the Western and Islamic world. We face the challenge to promote the dialogue with Muslims in Europe and the dialogue between Europe and the Muslim world. Against this background, the joint statement by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary General of the OIC and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union was an important signal at the global level.
The Austrian EU-Presidency is committed to promote dialogue, cooperation and mutual respect between Europe and the Muslim world. It is important to envisage long-term initiatives for a dialogue between civilisations, cultures and religions and to use different fora. One such opportunity is the Alliance of Civilisations. Austria is ready to host the 3rd High Level Group Meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations at the end of May in Vienna.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before I return the floor to you, let me come back to your original question: the Austrian presidency - a turning point?
We are having many issues on our agenda; each of them has its own momentum. Let us hope that we will be able to take all these issues forward. It would be nice if some day people were to say that 2006 was the beginning of a positive trend. Success and change does not come over night, it is always combined with hard and arduous work.
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