27 October 2005
The PM, President of the European Commission and President of the European Parliament held a press conference in Strasbourg, following Mr Blair’s speech to the Parliament.
Opening statement
Mr Borrell:
… for coming to the European Parliament today. It was extremely important for the European Parliament to be able to have a debate before the Hampton Court summit in order to begin discussing the opportunities and challenges of globalisation, here in the house which represents all European citizens. It is crucial for the European Union to raise these issues, and I really thank the Prime Minister, the President of the Council, for having invited the President of the Parliament to assist with this meeting. I think it is a good idea, a good starting point for the better working together.
Today we have been talking about the role of Europe on the globalisation process. I think … today Europe is a part of the problem, and it should become part of the solution. Thank you Mr Blair, thank you for being here, and the floor is yours.
Tony Blair:
Thank you Mr President, and thank you and your colleagues for having me here to the Parliament, and I found it a very good debate actually, with the issue of the globalisation and the right way to respond to it is obviously absolutely at the heart of the discussion about the future of Europe. And just let me, for the purposes of the journalists here, just again very briefly describe what I might call the sort of architecture of the next few weeks. Since the June visit to the European Parliament, we have worked very closely with the Commission in order to produce the Commission paper which I hope we will essentially agree tomorrow at the informal Council, and that sets out the challenge for what Europe must do, what nation states must do.
And then what we want to do is to agree further areas of work for the European Union, which the Commission will lead, in the fields that I listed, to do with research and development, energy policy, universities, demographics, issues to do with migration and so on, and the restructuring, or Globalisation Fund. We also hope to get outline agreement so that we can have in December an agreement on justice and home affairs which will deal with counter-terrorism strategy, and in addition the issues of illegal migration. So that is the informal summit tomorrow.
We then take forward that work in order that that sets the background, the context for the budget discussion in December, and we want to make a start on getting the right priorities for the European budget, and this is the issue to do with the review, to give us the opportunity of making that budget more radically aligned with the priorities of the European Union. So you have got these things all coming together, then in addition the other issues to do with defence and common and foreign security policy and so on. But the basic point is this, we need to agree the direction, we need to agree the new priority areas of work, and then we need to agree a budget deal that fits in with those priorities. So that is the purpose of it.
As I said to many people here today, I don’t know whether it is going to be possible to reach an agreement, but we will do our best to do so. And thank you, Mr President very much for agreeing to come and participate in our discussion tomorrow, and thank you for the opportunity yet again to come before the European Parliament, and I have to say, I thought it was very lively, it was a very good debate, and with a strong quality of speeches made, at least by the other participants.
Question and answer session
Question:
I have two questions, one for the Prime Minister and one for President Barroso. Mr Prime Minister, you said you want to reach agreement on budgets in December. Can you guarantee that new member states will not pay for this compromise, and they will receive at least as much money as was promised in the June proposition of Luxembourg? And the second question is for Mr Borrell. Do you think that the British Presidency work enough with European Parliaments on these perspectives, financial perspectives?
Tony Blair:
First of all, we don’t want of course to disadvantage the accession members, that is very important. And actually one of the reasons why we are trying to go for this financial deal is because we know that those new members need to get access to the money, they need to be able to plan ahead, and it matters in a sense probably more to them than it does to the former 15 members of the European Union. One of the other issues which I think is worth addressing however is how those accession members get access in a better way to the European funds they have been promised, because very often they are unable to spend a very great deal of what is offered to them in principle. So we will work closely with them on that.
Mr Borrell:
The British Presidency is paying as much attention to the parliament as the previous Luxembourg Presidency, and from this point of view we think our cooperation is very good. And we have to judge a Presidency by the whole period, we cannot establish a judgment about half the period, especially if there is a summer in the middle. So I think we have to wait for the proposal that the British Presidency will do, at the right moment, and you have already listened to the Prime Minister as the President of the Council, first he wants to establish priorities, and then to establish the budget, which is quite a logical sequence.
Question:
Is the British rebate, when you do come to talk about the budget, is that on the table, and if so what are the conditions for discussing it or for giving it up?
Tony Blair:
Well I don’t really have anything to add to what I said before in June on that. You know what we want is a rational budget for the European Union, and the rebate is one of the things that obviously people discuss, but it is not the only thing. And I have always made it clear that the important thing is to understand why the rebate is there. So I am very willing to have a good go at sorting this financing deal out, but it has got to be on a basis that is rational, and it has got to be on a basis that the European citizens will recognise as meeting their priorities, you know to equip us better for globalisation, to fight illegal immigration and terrorism, to make sure that Europe can pull its weight in the world and deliver greater prosperity. Now it is within that overall context that all of these issues should be discussed.
Question:
Two questions, one for President Borrell and one for Prime Minister Blair. President Borrell, in June when the Prime Minister appeared he had a very, very warm welcome from this Assembly. Do you think in view of today’s speech and the welcome there is a loss of confidence from this Assembly in this Presidency and how much it has achieved? And the second question for Prime Minister Blair. You talked about the Globalisation Fund, and you also appeared to tone down some of your demands on the CAP, is that a sop to the French and is tomorrow all about renewing the entente cordial with Jacques Chirac?
Mr Borrell:
I think the temperature was more or less the same one as in July, and the temperature inside the … not the weather temperature. It has happened that we had the same thing in July, at the beginning it was a little bit cold, and then little by little the temperature has increased till then.
Tony Blair:
Yes, I actually thought it was a very good debate, I think it is a debate that at least if people were listening to that debate in Europe. I don’t know how much they always listen to the proceedings of any parliament, but if they were they would have seen people making the very points they want to make. And no, our position has not changed on the CAP, or the budget or anything else. I think I said back in June, I didn’t think you could change the whole of the CAP overnight, you can’t, no-one is asking for that and I have never asked for that.
But what you do have to have is the ability to review the budget so that you get it more aligned with the priorities of people in Europe. And look, in respect of the issues to do with France, it is important that Britain and France work together if we can, but obviously there are areas in which we have had a disagreement, but you are not going to get Europe moving forward unless there is common ground, and that is what we have got to try to find, and that is the way it is.
Question:
You have spoken about how you need to find common ground tomorrow, a strategic direction for the future, and yet the German representative is going to be Gerhard Schroeder. Are you slightly disappointed he has not been more chivalrous and let Angela Merkel come, and are you expecting a broadside from him in the light of this being his swan song?
Tony Blair:
I don’t think that is in a very communautaire spirit. No, it is right that Gerhard comes tomorrow, and I am looking forward to having both his presence tonight at the dinner of the LEP leaders, the progressive leaders, and having him there at the conference tomorrow. But the key thing is that the strategic direction is set out in the Commission paper, and I think people should look at that, and if we can get agreement to that, that is the big step forward.
Question:
Mr Blair, which concrete amendments are necessary on the financial perspectives in the view of the six priorities you explained this afternoon?
Tony Blair:
Well I don’t think I had better try negotiating the financial perspective here and now, but if you look again at the Commission paper here, for example on research and development, you will see they set out certain suggestions as to what should happen there. And if you look also in terms of energy policy for example, there are real possibilities there, both within the European budget and for co-ordination outside of the European budget on a common energy policy.
Energy to my mind, and I don’t know whether any of you have seen the papers that have been put out today by the Presidency from various academics from round the European Union, but they are papers that give a background for the discussion of these various issues, and for example on energy policy they show really that the essential priority of Europe getting its act together in respect of energy, now some of that is to do with the financial perspective, but not all of it. But in relation to the budget, I think we know the areas we want to concentrate on, we want to be concentrating on the knowledge economy areas - R and D, innovation, support for small businesses, making sure that industries like the biotechnology industry are given the support that they need, a more rational way of, as we make with the suggestion of the European Research Council, actually deciding how we spend money in Europe, and of course with the review in the budget, which we want to happen half way through that financial perspective, giving us the possibility to re-shape it.
Question:
Prime Minister, how can you hope to get an agreement on the budget in December, when Jacques Chirac today, in the course of an article in the FT, says that there can be no change to agreed positions, ie the Copenhagen deal of 2002 on the CAP that lasts from 2007 - 13.
Tony Blair:
Well the important thing is to have this negotiation and see if we can’t find agreement. Because you need to be able to reshape the European budget, that is absolutely critical. Anyway, we will see, and it is as I say probably a good idea not to try to conduct the negotiations in the course of the press conference before the informal summit, or even after it. But look, the positions of countries are well known, the question is can we find a way through, because if we don’t find a way through for the financial perspective, that will have a bad effect on Europe as a whole, but it has got to be the right budget, it has got to be a budget that allows us the means of re-shaping the budget for the future.
delicious
digg
facebook
