This has truly been a high ranking conference. For hours and hours, almost all the participants have been present and have displayed enormous discipline, which is very rare indeed. This certainly has something to do with their interest in the topic, which is a topic of great significance that’s in, so to speak.
We need specific projects in order to overcome the crisis that Europe has experienced during the last few months and to transform this crisis into an opportunity. And we have to be very honest in our dealings with each other for this purpose. We are far from having an ideal situation. We have talked about controversial issues and we should not sweep them under the carpet.
When we talk about competences, we are also talking about power and its distribution at various levels and between the various institutions of democracy. This may be done in a spirit of partnership or in a spirit of adversity. It is important that we act as partners here.
Various problems have been touched upon. Allow me to recapitulate them briefly:
There are clear rules establishing the boundaries of competences: community competences and national competences, and there is also a grey area. There are complimentary competences or supporting competences, and finally there are the so-called horizontal competences. Almost all controversial judgments or issues relate to consumer protection, health care, environmental protection.
These are of course the so-called ‘soft issues’; they often lead to a blurring of the boundaries between community law and national or even regional legislative aspects.
What is clearly visible as a result of this conference is a new sensitivity towards these issues. We are facing a crisis but it is nevertheless an opportunity for us to strike the right balance, if the European Court of Justice, when assessing the principle of subsidiarity, also takes into account the protection of the identity of local authorities, regions, and national competences. A ruling on these issues is to be handed down shortly. And I am curious about what this will mean in practice.
What is the EU and European policy all about? We have to make sure that people are still interested in European affairs; we have to involve our citizens. This should not be a onetime event passed on from our British and Dutch friends. There needs to be a constant follow-up to this conference. What makes me very optimistic is that the upcoming presidencies, the Finnish and German, the Portuguese and the Slovenian presidencies have already said that they want to continue this process and that is very intriguing.
That means that we are breathing new life into this process.
We will also continue to work on this issue in the weeks to come. As early as on the 9th of May, we are to meet with the national parliaments as well as with the European Parliament, the European Commission and Council. On the 27th and 28th of May we will come together in order to discuss this very issue at a conference on the future of Europe headed by the foreign minister. Finally, we want to formulate important conclusions for our roadmap for the European Constitutional Treaty during the Council meeting in June. A choreography of how we should proceed.
We should learn in particular that those who ask questions and level criticism are not bad Europeans, let us keep that in mind. Sometimes those who are posing critical and unpleasant questions are the ones who act as eye-openers, making it possible for us to turn this crisis into an opportunity. These are the people who help us open up the doors toward a better European future.
With this in mind, I would like to thank you very much. I have learned a lot here over the past two days and I have noted many things. Thank you for coming and investing so much time at this conference.
Dear Erwin Pröll, in the name of all the participants I would like to thank you for your hospitality. As the Governor of Lower Austria you have been a wonderful host.
Let me tie in with what you said at one point. We need to continue this dialogue in your respective countries, at the national level, at the level of the local authorities and 80 parliaments so that this does not remain merely a onetime event that fizzles out; but rather something that can help to establish a permanent process of pushing Europe ahead.
What we need is not less but a better Europe for the future.
Thank you once again for coming and have a safe journey home.
Email Service
Accreditation
Hotel Reservation
Route Planner
Weather