Toespraak premier Tusk over het Pools voorzitterschap (en)

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk i's Address to the European Parliament

to Conclude the Polish Presidency

Ladies and Gentlemen, six months have passed since we met at the start of the Polish Presidency. What I then declared was a great attachment of the Poles and my own to the idea of common Europe.

I declared the attachment to the European Community, being aware that we take Presidency amid extensive crisis. Not only a financial crisis, but - as we had already anticipated then - also the crisis of trust. And what should be probably stressed, this may be also a crisis of governance and policy. Despite that, and maybe because, this has been our first appearance as the leader of EU presidency, it has been a presidency of people determined to fulfil their European responsibilities as well as possible. We've dedicated to this Presidency not only the goodwill, but also efforts and skills of young Poles who have worked here, in Strasbourg, in Brussels, Warsaw and many other places across Europe. We have accepted the responsibilities, mindful of our limitations. Responsibilities involved routine duties of any presidency, including legislative ones. I won't list everything we did throughout there six months. In recent days, I have received wholehearted words praising our dedication and effectiveness.

It might sound excessively proud, but I really think that the Poles deserve such praise exactly because it was with such belief in the significance of common Europe that they tackled the challenges which the Polish Presidency faced - be it work on the so-called "six pack", the accession of Croatia, the Eastern Partnership, energy security, or other legislation, such as the single European patent.

In all of these areas, we have managed to take our responsibilities and work to the final stage. It was mainly because the Polish presidency has been led by people who are really serious about Europe as a community and who despite that - or, maybe the other way round - because we have been struck by the crisis, including the crisis of trust, we wanted to demonstrate that the duties and involvement of a European should be even more clear-cut and determined at such times.

I would like to take this summary further to become a politically relevant reflection born as a result of these six months of experience of the Polish presidency. But I'm sure you also came to similar conclusions and have a similar need to tell frankly what is going on in Europe now. For, in spite of this satisfaction with the work done, I can't say now that Europe at the end of 2011 is a Europe more united than six months, a year, or five years ago. At the close of the Polish presidency, I can't say that we've together averted this maybe most serious crisis in the history of common Europe that persists in this continent. Indeed, we have to say it very openly - we are on a crossroads. We face a very serious choice: to go along the community way during this crisis, looking for methods and ways to overcome this crisis, searching for a European way to do so, or to go along the way of national and state egotisms, regardless of each other and considering the Community to be a burden rather than the best way for Europeans to tackle the crisis.

I would like to remind you that Community institutions have not been the real source of the crisis, the financial crisis. The financial crisis was not born in the European Parliament, the European Commission, or other Community institutions. The European integration is not at the roots of the financial, and hence political, crisis. These six months have shown will full force that it is exactly the opposite, that the crisis feeds and fattens up on this vision of the Community falling apart. We can't say that we've managed to handle the crisis, because Europe hasn't always acted as a community when faced with it. Why are we talking now about a political crisis as well? Because too many people in Europe, too many politicians in Europe want to persuade us and Europe that abandoning the Community action is the way to overcome the crisis. The view I and the Polish Presidency share is that this is a symptom of some illness. This is the crisis that undermines the feeling of community. When we now hear in Europe that the Community basics, fundamentals need to be revised, this is a sign that the crisis is not only in our banks, but also in our hearts.

The most recent European Council, the last summit, has demonstrated very vividly that there are some who look for tools to rescue the euro, and also, in a longer run, to strengthen the Community, but there are others who believe that the way to rescue the euro or the finances of states and institutions is to loosen up the Community, which eventually leads to its destruction. I don't want to accuse anyone, because these are equal-level beliefs. Everyone can have their vision of the future of Europe, but we can't hide the fact that a real, albeit covert, debate is going on today not only on the future of the euro, but also on the future of Europe. At the latest European Council we have taken decisions which are only the first step. Both in Brussels and in my country, I've tried to persuade everyone that if we are not fully satisfied with this summit, this is because we've made only the first step, but we need to be fully determined to take the next steps quickly and firmly within the Community and for the Community. When I hear some comments - certainly with a good will, I don't accuse anyone of bad will - but when I hear comments full of satisfaction that Great Britain has once again become an island, that the English Channel has instantly broadened as compared to several weeks ago, I must frankly say I don't understand this satisfaction. We may be dissatisfied with decisions of politicians of one or another country, but we can't display publicly the delight that the distance between Member States grows bigger as we speak. In this case, between the UK and the European Community. But I'd like also to say that different views have also emerged, such as that some capital has won against other capitals. We all know that Europe, not only for the time of this crisis, but also for the future, needs strong political leadership. At this European Council and during these six months I’ve witnessed this European dispute, which is not fully defined yet. Is the political leadership of Europe likely to result from merciless competition between nation-states, leading to the domination of one, two or three capitals over the others? Or maybe the other way round? WiIl the European political leadership be a community leadership for the benefit of the whole Community? It is very important that we should be able to summarise every other meeting with the belief that the Community wins against egoism, rather than that somebody wins against someone else in a collapsing Community. I would also like to say after these six months that Europe needs a self-examination. We can't now point with the finger and say, "this is the source of crisis", "oh, this poor country in the south has made all the trouble for us". What we also need is a common responsibility for the future. Northern Europe, which boasts about its discipline, must also come to better understand the need for solidarity. The south of Europe must also understand that common responsibility also means more discipline.

We have to put it very clearly that the sources of the crisis, not only the financial, but also the political one, lie in breaches of mutual obligations, including the ones resulting from the treaties, and that these breaches are not new. Everyone should conduct self-examination. Everyone should think about when they started to breach the Maastricht Treaty arrangements. Everyone should think about whether they are determined to nurture the Schengen arrangements. We, who care for a really integrated, common Europe, have to say it very clearly today - that we need more determination in protecting the European foundations instead of incessantly discussing the revision of European foundations. That's why I would like to conclude the Polish Presidency with a call on all European leaders to take up this effort to strengthen the Community, starting from themselves, instead of looking for a way to disintegrate, exclude or divide Europe. That's why today, let's emphasise it once again, we are for integration and against disintegration. We are against divisions into better and poorer ones, and support a growing political unity of Europe. We are for responsibility, common responsibility, against egoistic irresponsibility. We are against exclusions, because the Community must rely on solidarity also when sometimes someone is in a poorer, and someone in a better, condition. What we need is genuine political leadership, because Europe deserves for swift decisions. Decisions that concern this ongoing financial crisis, but also the future. The crisis has come to be a great test of Community effectiveness. We have to start a serious debate on a greater political effectiveness of Europe.

Other crises, other conflicts will come in future. This crisis has shown us - and it was good, really good that it happened - that Europe as a Community is not always quick in its reactions, because trust, this basic foundation for the institutions we have built together, is lacking. This leadership can't be a leadership of one, two, or three, even the strongest, states. It also cannot be a leadership of technocrats, because they have no democratic mandate. This leadership has to be of political nature, it needs a democratic support, has to be accepted by all, in order to be able to enforce duties from everyone. This must be a leadership based on European institutions. I'd like to say that in the coming hours, days and weeks we need swift decisions to rescue the euro and stabilise the euro-zone i, but we need, equally strongly, honest and frank discussion also on the new political system for Europe. We can't pretend anymore. Let's be clear, not everyone accepts the Community system. Today, we are incapable of enforcing the rules we have once set for ourselves. These days, we circumvent Treaty obligations when expedient. So let's be frank about it: we need a very deep, serious debate on Europe's political system to give Europe a community leadership. Therefore, the motto of our presidency, "More Europe in Europe", has a political dimension as well. I believe that this place has a clear historic and political mandate, and don't allow to be deprived of it. This is the place that should become the founding body for Europe. Nothing will be like before the crisis anymore. The status quo ante bellum is unacceptable. Europe will be different after the crisis, that's for sure. The question is, will it be wrecked or more integrated. It certainly won't be the same and that is why the European Parliament, because you have the democratic mandate and you should - I think - assume such great responsibility, this great call, should become such modern founding body for this emerging Europe.

For a new Europe is emerging as we speak. Let's do everything for Europe to become a shared, and not divided place. This deep reflection shouldn't be only a window dressing, as it happened in the past. We had groups of eminent personalities, we had task groups, committees. Everyone knew that we had to have this reflection for the future in place, but the outline of a new political system has never emerged and the crisis made it clear with all obviousness and severity. What I'm talking about is not thousands and scores of thousands of new regulations. What is to be done is to restore the balance between the national and the common, to restore the trust based on several clear rules. Rules that are accepted by all and which we are able to enforce from those who intend to breach them. I think this is a key task of the European Parliament as a modern founder of a new polity. It's not about scaring people - the crisis is sufficiently scary. But if we fail to live up to this task, future generations will blame not only the crisis, but also us. Either we take up the struggle for future Europe, or we will grieve for this Europe which we have now.

Thank you.