Van Rompuy spreekt Europarlement toe over uitkomsten Europese Raad (en)

Remarks by Herman VAN ROMPUY i President of the European Council at the European Parliament Conference of Presidents

It is my honour to report back to you on what was a workmanlike European Council where we made progress in a number of fields.

We devoted the first day to the economy. These discussions fell into three parts: First, economic policy coordination, with the work done in the European Semester and the Euro Plus Pact;

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Second, the implementation of the comprehensive March package;

Third, the situation of the countries under EU/IMF programs, including Greece.

Concerning the first part, economic policy coordination:

We concluded the first European Semester, the new framework for economic policy coordination. We had a good and long discussion on national budgetary choices and on economic reforms. We endorsed the recommendations of the Commission to the Member States, without -- and I insist without -- watering them down.

That is very positive, all the more so since the Commission gave uncompromising assessments and strong public recommendations. Now it is up to the Member States: they have to take these recommendations into account when drafting their budgets and working out reforms.

What I draw from our discussions is not just that Member States can live with the Commission's recommendations; no, all members of the European Council are personally committed to implement them.

We also discussed the commitments under the Euro Plus Pact by the Member States -- all but four -- who participate in it. All agreed we are working in the right direction: increasing competitiveness, fostering employment, reinforcing financial stability, improving the state of public finances, and reforming the pension sector to make it sustainable. But we concluded that the next round of commitments under the Pact should be more ambitious and more concrete.

With this stronger economic policy coordination, the Union has drawn the big lesson of the sovereign debt crisis: interdependence, -- the fact that the decisions of one country affects all the others, especially (but not only) those sharing the euro.

This first experience is positive. There is a stronger sense of common responsibility. Even if these are difficult and worrisome days, we are strengthening the groundwork of the Economic and Monetary Union.

Second element in the economic discussion: the state of implementation of the comprehensive March package of economic measures.

Here, we endorsed the amended text on the European Financial Stability Facility and the treaty text of the European Stability Mechanism, the permanent safety net for the future.

We recalled the key importance of fully transparent bank stress tests.

We looked at the state of play concerning the legislative package for strengthening the economic governance (the so called "six-pack"): a stronger Stability Pact and the new macro-economic surveillance.

Allow me to say a few words about this point, which I know is of great importance to your Parliament.

Council and Parliament agree on more than 95 % of the text, and I therefore urge the legislators to complete the final negotiations so that this important package can be adopted soon -- indeed, I hope, at the next parliamentary session. I congratulate the Hungarian Presidency and the Parliament for the work done so far.

In its negotiations with Council, the Parliament has secured significant improvements. According to the Hungarian minister chairing the Council "the quality of the texts has improved a lot, the package has become stronger and more coherent".

Parliament's delegation to the trilogue has managed, inter-alia:

To codify the European Semester in the legal texts, including provision for comprehensive assessment of Member States' progress on EU-2020 strategy for growth and jobs.

To ensure that Reverse QMV is applied in five out of the six decisions where it is legally possible, (including the recommendations on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances). On the remaining one there is still disagreement, but Council has offered a review clause.

To obtain for Parliament an equal role to Council in determining the scoreboard for detecting possible macroeconomic imbalances.

To secure tough fines for statistical fraud, and guarantees of independence for national statistical authorities.

To introduce earlier sanctions in the Excessive Imbalance Procedure.

These are no mean feats. But to the Parliament, and of course to the Council, I would say that now is the time to reach agreement on a good compromise. The positions are very close, but I am aware any further significant change will be very difficult.

As they say in French: le mieux ne doit pas être l'ennemi du bien (the better should not be the enemy of the good).

The third and final part of the European Council's economic discussion was about the situation of the countries under an EU/IMF programme.

The European Council welcomed progress made in Ireland in the implementation of its reform programme, which is well on track. It also welcomed the cross-party consensus in Portugal to fully implement its programme of reforms.

Regarding Greece, we adopted an extensive text, that you will have seen in the conclusions. It underlined the absolute importance of the adoption by the Greek Parliament of the key laws on the fiscal strategy. The Greek Parliament is considering them this very day. Its adoption will provide the basis for a new programme jointly supported by its European partners and the IMF, and allowing disbursement in time to meet Greece's financing needs in July.

The euro area Heads of State or Government endorsed the approach decided by the Eurogroup on 20 June as regards the pursuit of voluntary private sector involvement in the form of informal and voluntary roll-overs of existing debt while avoiding a selective default."

Dear Members, on the second day, we focussed our debate on three subjects: our response to the developments in the Arab world, migration and the free movement of persons, and the accession of Croatia.

On the first, the European Union intends to continue to play a key role in the historical developments which are taking place in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Without Europe, there would still have been an Arab Spring, but without us there will be no Arab summer!

We witness positive and negative developments. On the positive side, in addition to the democratic transformation in Tunisia and Egypt this spring, we see constitutional reform in Morocco; renewed commitment for political reforms in Jordan; and a lifting of the state of emergency and planned constitutional reforms in Algeria.

We want to contribute to these changes. We offer a new Partnership to the countries in the region, promoting both democratic reforms and economic reforms to the benefit of the citizens. We will build on individual assessments of partners' performance and needs: "less for less", and "more for more".

We condemned in the strongest possible terms the ongoing repression and unacceptable and shocking violence the Syrian regime continues to apply against its own citizens. By choosing a path of repression, instead of fulfilling its own promises on broad reforms, the regime is calling its legitimacy into question. Those responsible for crimes and violence against civilians shall be held accountable. Endorsing the conclusions adopted by the Council on 20 June 2011, the European Council welcomed the adoption of new sanctions.

It also lent its full support to diplomatic efforts aimed at ensuring that the UN Security Council can assume its responsibility and give adequate response to the situation in Syria.

Regarding Libya, the military pressure will remain as long as Khadafi stays. The European Union is preparing with international partners the post-Khadafi democratic transition.

Regarding Yemen: we reiterate the urgency of an orderly and inclusive transition.

The second issue of debate on the second day was migration. I chose this topic last summer, even before the events in the Arab world gave it a new urgency.

We reached four conclusions:

First, the best way to reduce migratory pressure on our southern borders, is by helping young people in Northern Africa and the Middle East to build a future in their own country. A successful migration policy starts outside our borders. Therefore the new partnerships with the countries of the Southern Neighbourhood will also include migration, mobility and security aspects.

Second, regarding asylum, we set the traffic light in the negotiations in the Council to "green" - again. We consider the recent Commission proposals on procedures and reception conditions as a basis for those further negotiations. We confirmed the 2012 target date for the establishment of the Common European Asylum System.

Third, regarding Schengen, all Heads of State and Government are deeply committed to free movement of persons: it is a cardinal achievement of the European integration and a fundamental right of citizens. Without undermining this basic principle, we felt the need to improve the Schengen rules. "A safeguard mechanism should be introduced in order to respond to exceptional circumstances putting the overall functioning of Schengen cooperation at risk, without jeopardizing the principle of free movement of persons."

As a very last resort, in the framework of this safeguard mechanism, a clause could be introduced to allow the exceptional reintroduction of internal border controls in a truly critical situation, when a member state is no longer able to comply with its obligations.

Such a measure would be taken on the basis of specified objective criteria, and on a common assessment for a strictly limited scope and period of time, taking into account the need to be able to react in urgent cases.

Fourth, we endorsed the agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on strengthening Frontex, our agency for external borders. It will, for instance, allow Frontex to deploy liaison officers in third countries -- in line with the new neighbourhood policy. From now on, its operations will be undertaken by the "European Border Guard Teams".

Finally, on Croatia, the European Council paved the way for Croatia's accession to the EU as the 28th Member State. We expect the Council to conclude the accession negotiations very soon, before the end of June. We would then sign the Accession Treaty before the end of the year. As envisaged by the Commission, accession would take place in the middle

of 2013.

This future accession of Croatia brings new momentum to the European vocation of the countries in the Western Balkans.

Besides all these discussions of policy, the European Council appointed Mr. Mario Draghi i as President of the European Central Bank as of 1 November 2011, following the favourable opinion given by your Parliament by such a large majority.

Dear collegues, that concludes my report on what was, on several matters, a very workmanlike European Council with nevertheless one outstanding decision on Croatia: belonging to the Union is for the people of Croatia the fulfilment of a long-lasting aspiration.