Mr President, ladies and gentlemen,
Today's debate, just one week before the spring European Council (on 23 and 24 March 2006), provides an excellent opportunity for us to discuss together the key priorities which the summit will be tackling. In a few days the Heads of State or Government will be meeting to decide on priority measures to create jobs and growth. Implementation of the Lisbon Strategy will be high on their agenda.
Thorough preparation is the best way to ensure the success of such a major undertaking: various Council configurations have therefore been discussing the European Council's priorities in the light of their own concerns and have made their input. In line with the usual procedure, the relevant Council preparatory bodies are already scrutinising the European Council's draft conclusions.
The first day of the European Council is traditionally the day on which the Tripartite Social Summit is held, and so it will be on 23 March 2006. This summit provides an opportunity for the Council, the Commission and the two sides of industry to consult one another on employment and economic policies and on social security.
In this context, the Austrian Presidency welcomes the initiatives taken by the European institutions to increase "ownership" at European level; it appreciates the valuable contributions they have made, such as the European Parliament's second inter-parliamentary meeting with national parliaments. Alongside the EU institutions, the Member States, and particularly their governments, ought likewise to make every effort to increase public awareness of the need to implement this partnership for jobs and growth, in order to create a greater sense of "ownership" in the public mind.
At the same time it is important that regional and local authorities, in keeping with national constitutional requirements, and civil society, should be involved in formulating and implementing national reform programmes.
In this constructive spirit, let us turn today's debate into an open discussion of the potential answers to the EU's common economic and social problems and of the role which you can play, as the representatives of Europe's citizens.
In March 2005 the European Council agreed on a fundamental re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy: its priorities were refocused on jobs and growth (consistent with the Sustainable Development Strategy). All appropriate national and Community resources are to be mobilised to a greater degree to achieve this end. In addition, procedure was streamlined: the new governance cycle is based on partnership and ownership.
At Hampton Court, the Heads of State or Government provided further political impetus for the renewed Lisbon Strategy, and focused on how European values can underpin modernisation in our economies and societies in a globalised world.
Last but not least, the Member States reached political agreement on the 2007-2013 financial perspective at the December 2005 European Council. That agreement was an important step forward in providing the Union with the means to carry out its policies, especially those needed for successful implementation of the renewed Lisbon Strategy. Moreover, the agreement reached at the summit helped to change the mood in the EU, and I hope that this new mood can be maintained. I am convinced that, working together closely with the European Parliament, we can now reach a good agreement on the financial perspective.
Europe is facing new challenges, such as intensified competition from abroad, both economic and technological, an ageing population, higher oil prices and the need to safeguard energy security.
Since the end of 2005, a gradual economic recovery has been under way. The EU is expected to create six million new jobs during the three-year period 2005-2007, with unemployment falling from a peak of 9,0% at the end of 2004 to 8,1% in 2007. However, reducing unemployment further, increasing productivity and stepping up growth potential remain key challenges for the Union.
This economic recovery, although modest, provides an excellent opportunity for pressing ahead with structural reforms in line with the national reform programmes, as well as for enhanced fiscal consolidation in line with the new Stability and Growth Pact. In this context, specific targets and timetables are a useful tool for speeding up the implementation of the planned reforms and for delivering better results in terms of growth and employment.
On the basis of the decisions taken in spring 2005, the European Council adopted integrated strategic guidelines. Building on these, all the Member States then drew up national reform programmes, geared to their own needs and specific situations. The Commission submitted a "Community Lisbon Programme", covering action to be taken at Community level. The Commission's annual progress report also represents a significant contribution to the workings of the process of the renewed Lisbon strategy for growth and employment.
The national reform programmes contain a wealth of promising policy measures to be shared and learnt from.
All the requisite tools are now in place. The top priority for Member States in 2006 will therefore be the timely and comprehensive implementation of our goals. To that end Member States may need to step up the measures already provided for in their national reform programmes.
The Commission has not proposed an update of the integrated guidelines for jobs and growth 2005 2008, so these remain valid without any change. After the major changes of last year, the focus should now be on more action and more continuity.
In line with the strategy's new governance, Member States have made real efforts to involve national parliaments and representatives from regional and local authorities, as well as the two sides of industry and other stakeholders of civil society, in the formulation of their national programmes. Likewise, European citizens must now be more actively involved in the process in order to convince them that timely and properly implemented reforms will contribute to greater and better distributed prosperity.
In this, we are counting on your assistance. The European Parliament can help us to achieve greater ownership of the Lisbon strategy for all players and secure their future participation as well. Discussions like this are also an important opportunity to explain the necessity and the benefits of structural reforms.
In this connection, I have no hesitation in pointing out that the Austrian Presidency attaches considerable importance to the compromise on the Services Directive reached at the Parliament's first reading. The outcome is well balanced and a good basis for future discussions. The issue remains highly controversial, as can be seen just from the number of amendments which have been tabled. In the light of this outcome and discussions to date at Council, the Presidency is concerned that the European Council should now call on the Commission to submit its amended proposal as soon as possible and express the hope that the institutions will be in a position to bring the legislative process to a swift conclusion.
The Presidency's intention is that within the framework of the integrated guidelines approved last year, the European Council should lay down specific priority measures to be implemented by the end of 2007. The 2006 spring summit will thus be devoted to the issues given priority in the national reform programmes and the Commission's report: research, development and innovation, SME policy, employment and energy. Of course, action should also continue to be taken across the board, on all three strands of the Lisbon Strategy (economic, social and environmental). If we are to enter the phase of real delivery, with visible outcomes, we need to aim for a good mix of verifiable voluntary undertakings by the 25 Member States and recommendations from the Commission. However, at the moment the Council's preparatory bodies are still discussing how high we should set the bar.
One pillar of the Lisbon strategy is research and innovation, as the driving force behind production and knowledge use. Four years ago now we set ourselves the target of 3% research spending in Europe by 2010 - with a significant share of this spending, i.e. two thirds, to come from the private sector. It would be a good idea if the resources available from the EU were to rise in step with our own national efforts. To this end, we also need to encourage cooperation between universities, research and business to help increase the research percentage.
As we are all aware, we have not made very good headway in this field, which is so important for our future - research expenditure in the Union currently stands at just 1,9%.
Through our joint efforts with the European Commission we have been able to set up some momentum and raise Member States' awareness that specific goals and voluntary commitments to increase research spending are important. All the Member States have already raised their aspirations and set their national goals accordingly.
In addition, in our fast-moving information society, modern ICT strategies play an important role in promoting innovation. This too should be given due consideration.
As far as higher education is concerned, we should like to call on Member States to give the universities easier access to additional private funding and to remove barriers to cooperation between academic institutions and business.
Secondly, more must be done to improve the framework conditions for entrepreneurs, especially to unlock the business potential of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs form the bulk of the European economy and can proudly claim to be its driving force: there are approx. 23 million SMEs in the EU, providing almost 75 million jobs. Measures to strengthen and promote SMEs, which form the backbone of the European economy, can therefore make a significant contribution to growth and employment in Europe.
We want to cut red tape for SMEs and reduce the time and money involved in setting up new businesses. So-called "one-stop shops" to support business start-ups in the Member States could considerably reduce the time required for setting up SMEs.
The regulatory environment also needs to be simple, transparent and easy to apply, especially for SMEs. We therefore call upon the Commission to analyse the administrative costs involved in EU legislation and explore options for introducing measurable targets for easing administrative burdens.
Thirdly, greater employment opportunities and increased integration into the labour market remain priority goals. Urgent action is especially needed to promote the integration of young people into the labour market and combat youth unemployment. By the end of 2010 we want to reduce the numbers of those leaving school early and increase the percentage of young people completing upper secondary school education.
Efforts to combat long-term unemployment must also be high on our agenda. People will only gain confidence in the European Union if they have the prospect of work. The aim of the strategy for growth and jobs is therefore to create more and better jobs and to view employment more as a tool for promoting social integration and social cohesion. We want to create the right conditions to increase the number of jobs by at least 2 million per year.
Lastly, the European Council will be dealing with the issue of energy, not only given the importance of this sector for creating jobs and growth, but also, of course, in the light of recent events. The Presidency's aim here is for the European Council to establish a new energy policy for Europe, based on three main objectives: increasing security of supply, ensuring competitive energy markets and promoting a sustainable energy mix.
Thank you.
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