Chairman, distinguished members of the committee, Excellencies and colleagues, it is a great honour for me to present to such an eminent audience the priorities and assumptions of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which Poland took over on 1 July. Poland assumed this leadership responsibility after over seven years of active participation in the European Union. We have gained a better understanding of the process and we thank you for the generous support over many years which has helped make it possible. We thank Hungary for its fine work and advice in the first half of this year. We also thank Denmark and Cyprus for working so closely with us in our trio to help create a coherent programme of action into 2012.
It is 21 years since the elections in 1990 which ended communism and gave us again a freely elected President, Mr. Lech Walesa. We restored our freedom and dignity by mobilising round one bold idea and the values it represented, namely, Solidarity. Europe is now united and this is a profoundly optimistic story for our Continent which should not be forgotten. Europe has been gradually transformed for the benefit of us all. Co-operation across all policy areas is now automatic, organised, broader and deeper. New institutions have developed and we have shared defence arrangements, a new external action service and a common currency. This is a story of optimism, growth, teamwork and commitment. A story of success and solidarity. There has been nothing else like it in world history. That very ambition - in all its complexity and determination - that underpins the EU is creating new problems. Optimists insist that the European project is now too big to fail. Pessimists insist that it is too big to succeed.
In many parts of the European Union, public debts are growing. Unemployment is stubbornly high. New jobs are not emerging. We face other painful strategic questions in respect of long-term energy supplies, migration and border controls, fierce economic and political competition from other parts of the world and instability across north Africa and the Middle East. Above all, we face the issues around the eurozone and Europe's financial markets. All these problems are combining to test, as never before, some of our deepest shared assumptions of Europe-wide solidarity and common resolve.
This was the situation facing the European Union as Poland took its Presidency turn. I know what all of those present are wondering. They are asking themselves, "In the short few months they have been leading the European Union, can the Poles really do anything new or add value, especially when those problems facing Europe are so large and complex?". They are correct to be realistic. Very few presidencies push through sudden changes of direction or achieve dramatic policy jumps, planned before the Presidency started. However, a new Presidency brings renewed energy, a change of style, a chance to identify new themes and plant policy seeds which may grow into sturdy plants to the benefit of people across the Continent and far beyond.
Europe is facing severe problems. In the months and years to come, it will need to take transformative, far-reaching decisions. Poland knows all about facing severe problems and taking such decisions. We are ready to draw on the lessons of our example and to show a certain boldness of spirit in the context of a reaffirmation of solidarity and of basic European values. Our approach can be summed up in three words, describing the way we see the European Union and Poland's role in it, namely, "growing", "secure" and "open". We want a growing Europe. All of Europe's policy ambitions for ourselves, for our own neighbourhood and for our global reputation will falter if we do not put our own economic house in order. A Europe struggling with its own financial credibility on global markets will not be growing or secure. Its openness will be called into question. Poland is not a member of the eurozone but the euro is our vital interest. It is our strategic goal to join the eurozone when the conditions are right. Poland joined the euro plus pact precisely to show this commitment.
As Poland moves towards eurozone membership, it brings with it one of the European Union's best performances in recent years in terms of sustained economic growth and sound financial management. We have a constitutional rule of 60% debt to GDP which the government cannot breach and additional expenditure rules are now being developed as a consequence of the crisis. This prudent fiscal framework, together with a flexible economy and European Union funds investment, helped maintain growth, even during the crisis. Therefore in our Presidency we plan to play a full part in helping European partners identify the modern regulation framework the European Union needs to move forward strongly and to grow faster. However, the foundation of future European success is not clever rules for clever money, it is Europe's people, working well and hard together to create value.
The Presidency supports Commission proposals for reforming the Internal Market - the Single Market Act. The Presidency will focus on several practical areas where Europe's own rules and cautious, inflexible attitudes, are holding back people - areas where we can make a difference to hundreds of millions of people.
E-commerce must be a big part of the European market's future. Europeans are comfortable about online shopping in their own countries but still uneasy about buying online from sites elsewhere in the European Union. Some 60% of cross-border e-commerce is not happening due to legal constraints and we need to make progress on that. For decades Europe was divided by the ugly Berlin Wall. That has been demolished but far too many ugly little legal and regulatory walls still stop things happening. Imagine if we got to take down those walls how new ideas and new jobs would be created and how much more smoothly things would work.
The Presidency will warmly support Commission proposals to create a new legal space for a European Union-wide common sales contract. This will bring people together across and beyond internal borders. Another good result will be cheaper roaming services. Mobile internet access is soaring. It makes no sense that simply by crossing from one part of the European Union to another Europeans are deterred by high prices from co-operating online. Less obvious but no less strategic is the EU patent regime, which could save millions for our entrepreneurs and therefore encourage innovation faster. Measures like this make a real difference. They set people free and they are on the table to be pushed through.
While this work goes on, Europe must invest for the future. This Presidency sees the first major moves to define the European Union's next budget framework for 2014-2020. Pressures on national treasuries are heavy for all the obvious reasons, but Europe cannot afford to step back from the strategic investment and solidarity that the European Union represents. This budget underpins the Europe 2020 strategy. The Presidency is confident that in the coming months this sensitive budget negotiation can make a fair and reasonable start. We will set a scene for a final budget deal next year. Our ambition is to work hard and fair to clarify issues at stake and to understand what the Commission proposal means for every member state.
A growing Europe needs a secure Europe. Security depends on maintaining confidence in our policies, institutions, communities and ourselves. The institutional and community framework includes border management policies that work and enjoy the respect of citizens. Reasonable and orderly processes of migration help Europe. Chaotic pressure on Europe's borders brought about by events beyond our control creates serious new problems for many member states. This can even call into question our hard-won internal solidarity on free movement of people. The Polish Presidency will push for enhanced capacity to help Frontex deal with these unexpected crises.
At the most basic human level of security is food. A secure Europe means having ways to cope with shocks to global food supplies. Security also comes from biodiversity - balancing economic development with essential environmental protection. The Common Agricultural Policy has served Europe well but it needs reform. The Presidency will promote good compromises which combine market-based reforms with continuing support where that makes sense, especially for less developed rural areas.
A Europe secure in itself articulates a credible and united voice in international affairs. Here the Lisbon treaty opens up new ways to deploy different sorts of power to make policy and to have a collective impact. The Presidency means to develop these options, pushing hard to bring together civilian and military operations, and supporting the high representative as she builds up the European Union's collective external policy networks.
In terms of an open Europe, a growing and secure Europe is a generous Europe, extending its success to other countries. The Presidency welcomed the decision of the European Union member states to close accession negotiations with Croatia. We want progress to be made with Turkey and Iceland. Serbia has made an important step towards European Union membership by arresting General Mladic. Let us push ahead with helping all the countries of the Western Balkans move through their accession programmes in a positive and mutually reinforcing spirit.
Our Presidency will look to the east and to the south. In eastern Europe there is still unfinished business. Opening up things to allow people and trade to move is the best way forward. Belarus is an extreme case, a country whose economic prospects are now in serious danger because of banal tyranny. The forces for reform need unwavering EU support. With Ukraine and Moldova, the position is incomparably better and we want to see it better still. We will push to conclude association agreements, more visa liberalisation and new free trade areas.
The Presidency will work to set up a new framework of co-operation between the European Union and Russia. Poland, of all countries in Europe, knows just how important it is to get right Europe's relationship with its largest neighbour - right in tone and right in substance.
All these policies and initiatives come together in September in Warsaw at the Eastern Partnership Summit. This hugely symbolic event brings together European Union and central and eastern European leaders. It marks a new, important step in the integration of our Continent and shows that Europe is not only focused on its internal processes but tries to reach out to our neighbours. If Europe has unfinished business in the east, to the south the business is only beginning. Dramatic events are unfolding in north Africa and the wider Arab region. People are demanding accountable government and an end to clumsy oppression.
As we know from our own Continent, it is one thing to end a bad system, it is quite another to build a strong new one. Sustained reform means mobilising the energy and discipline of one's own people. These changes in the region will take years, even decades. Not all these changes will be for the better. Some religious and ethnic minorities, including Christians, need and must have a special European policy voice. These countries need to find their own path. The European Union will support them with the technology of democracy, in the best spirit of European solidarity and mutual respect.
Our Presidency will help get the right policy mix. The European Union draws on the hard-won experience of Poland and the other countries which have cleared the rubble of oppression to build modern policies and free transparent institutions. We therefore plan a high level conference in December to share best practices from our transformation and to help facilitate change and democratisation in the south.
If one thing is certain in our uncertain world, it is that something unexpected, and probably unwelcome, will come along during the Polish Presidency. We will be ready for that too as we were ready for big changes over the decades.
I will say a final word about what this means for me. In 1985 I participated in the European Youth Meeting in Strasbourg called "Future in Europe". At that time I was also a co-editor of the underground magazine devoted to the situation in the former Soviet Bloc. What struck me the most was that young people from western Europe were considering only western Europe while thinking about the future of our Continent. During my speech at the closing session I said: "Europe will have [a] future only when we think about it as a whole - including the part that longs for freedom and democracy." Now, 26 after saying those words, I can see how close to the truth I was then. For this reason it is crucial for me personally to call for the openness of Europe. Since only when it is open, can it guarantee security and constant growth.
That concludes my speech presenting the priorities and assumptions of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council. I am grateful to have this opportunity to set them out to the Oireachtas. I will be very pleased to hear the comments of the committee and I will be very happy to respond to any questions members may have.
