THE EUROPEAN Commission president has claimed the economic outlook in the EU is better than a year ago, saying that the union has “withstood the test” posed by the financial crisis.
In his first “state of the union” address to the European Parliament, José Manuel Barroso said the economic recovery was “gathering pace, albeit unevenly, within the union” and the unemployment rate, while still “much too high”, had stopped increasing.
Uncertainties and risks remained, he added, saying now was the time to modernise the social market economy so it could compete globally, and that there must be fast-tracking of structural reforms to create sustainable growth. Mr Barroso also called for “a real European common crisis response capacity” and a common EU defence policy.
The commission will propose next month that European states pool their resources to create “a real European crisis-response capacity”. While progress was being made on a common foreign policy, the EU “will never have the weight we need in the world without a common defence policy. I believe now is the moment to address this challenge.”
Mr Barroso said the EU faced five major challenges over the coming year – dealing with the economic crisis and governance; restoring growth for jobs by accelerating the Europe 2020 reform agenda; building an area of freedom, justice and security; launching negotiations for a modern EU budget and “pulling our weight on the global stage”.
His message to every European was they could “trust the European Union to do what it takes to secure your future” but, to succeed, it was crucial that European states acted together.
The speech attracted a lukewarm reception from several MEPs who urged the commission to take more active steps to deliver on its promises and to tackle disillusionment among many European citizens with the EU.
A proposal aimed at ensuring full attendance by MEPs for the address, the first major debate on the state of the EU, had angered many and ultimately did not proceed yesterday morning.
The presidents of the various political groups in the parliament had earlier proposed checking attendance three times during the debate with a financial penalty to be imposed on any members who failed to attend.
However, the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said while there was agreement that attendance during key debates needed to be “beefed up”, more time was needed to “mull the possibilities”.
Responding to Mr Barroso in the parliament, Irish Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said the commission was failing to learn the lessons of history and must act urgently to develop “a new social pact” for Europe.
The leader of the Socialists and Democrats group, Martin Shulz, said the address was more an ambitious and committed working programme and contained nothing about the actual “state of the union”. The state of the union was “not good” because the commission was “kowtowing to France and Germany over EU policy” and failing to fulfil “in full measure” its role under the EU treaties, he said.