By Angela Merkel
With the agreement on a Reform Treaty, Europe has regained new strength. Under the German EU Presidency we have broken the deadlock and jointly set course for a renewal of the treaties on which the European Union is based. As a result, the reform of the treaty will be able to enter into force before the elections to the European Parliament in 2009.
The new treaty will strengthen the European Union’s ability to act both internally and externally. It will bring Europe closer to its citizens.
Institutional reforms such as the transition to the "double majority" system of voting and the reduction in the size of the European Commission will facilitate more effective decision-making. In foreign relations, the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will represent the interests of the European Union to the world in a unified way and thereby become its "face and voice". The advances for citizens are also tangible: the Charter of Fundamental Rights will be legally binding and the new European Citizen’s Initiative will open up further opportunities for active participation in shaping Europe.
The agreement on a reform of the EU treaties is based upon a clear motive: the common will to constantly develop Europe anew. The European project will remain worthy of all our efforts in the future.
Europe is far more than an economic community. We share common values and goals. Public awareness of this has again been strengthened by the Berlin Declaration of 25 March 2007 on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. Europe stands for respect for human dignity, for solidarity and tolerance, for peace and freedom as well as for democracy and the rule of law. These values also form the guiding principle for European action in the world. They have successfully steered us in the past. I am convinced: Europe shall also succeed in the future on the basis of this awareness.During the German Presidency we also jointly reoriented the scope of the European Union. That includes the strengthening of Europe’s competitiveness. An economically successful Union increases our scope for shaping global decision-making processes. That is why during our Presidency, among other things, we supported a reduction of bureaucracy. We are striving for a 25% reduction in administrative burdens by 2012.
That will give businesses new scope for development. A new European payments area will finally enable entrepreneurs and citizens to make future crossborder payments in exactly the same way as within their own country. Additionally, the agreed "roaming regulation" will reduce the cost of using mobile telephones across Europe.
Under the German Presidency the European Union also took far-reaching decisions in favour of an integrated climate and energy policy.
We have jointly set ourselves ambitious targets for reducing climate-damaging emissions and for a secure, efficient and environmentally compatible energy supply. As a result of the renewal of the treaties on which the Union is based, climate protection has now been defined as an environmental policy goal of the European Union. The EU has thereby underlined its aspiration to continue playing a pioneering global role in this area. This signal was not only of great significance for the conclusion of the agreement on climate protection at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. I am confident that it will also have an impact far beyond that.
"Europe succeeds by pulling together" was the motto of the German EU Presidency.
Winning stronger support for the project of European unification among citizens in Germany was also one of my personal concerns. Some two months before the beginning of our chairmanship, 85% of the people surveyed in Germany knew nothing about the forthcoming German Presidency. Today the picture is very different: at 57%, citizens’ approval of EU membership has reached the highest level Europe-wide for ten years. I am as equally pleased about that as I am about Europe’s new-found dynamism.
Under the German Presidency, the European Union has proved that it is capable of reform and can provide solutions to the central challenges.
That is how Europe can constantly give us new inspiration.
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Dr. Angela Merkel
The research physicist was born in Hamburg in 1954 and grew up as the daughter of a pastor in the former GDR. Angela Merkel has been a member of the CDU and Member of the German Bundestag since 1990. She has been Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany since November 2005. In the first six months of 2007 she was head of the Union as EU President.
Europe succeeds by pulling together
FE Team | Published: October 03, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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