Labour Party Women’s Conference 2002 THE FUTURE OF EUROPE	Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2.2.2002
Speech by Mrs Anna Karamanou MEP, Chairperson of the European Parliament Committee on Women΄s Rights and Equal Opportunities

I am delighted to be here and talk to you about the future of Europe.

We are about to launch in a few days, a new institution, the Convention, in order to prepare the reforms needed to make the E.U. more democratic, effective and closer to the citizens. Linda Mcgavan is one of the five socialist members of the European Parliament, who will represent our group in the Convention.

She debate on the Future of Europe is very important, in order to decide upon a clear vision & strategy about the future evolution of the European Union. We must be prepared to absorb some sort term political pain for much larger long-term reforming gains. We have to promote a “European Project” as an investment for the future, in hope, peace, democracy, social justice and human dignity. If we fail to make the necessary reforms now, we shall face impossible choices tomorrow. We must therefore move ahead. As I said this morning, debating on Euro, if anything, the successful launching of the euro serves as a reminder that great projects succeed only if they are based on political will, courage and imagination.

In the recent European Council, in Laeken, we made two important decisions:

· First: to forge ahead with the enlargement of the Union.

· Second: to reform the Union “without taboos” by adopting an ambitious agenda (the Laeken declaration) and setting up a new democratic body, the Convention, to work out the necessary reforms before convening a new Intergovernmental Conference.

Accordingly, as many as new states from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean will be added, as full members, to the Union by 2004. And more than a hundred representatives from the European Parliament, the European Commission, the national governments and national parliaments from the present and the perspective member states will start examining the required reforms and changes for the enlarged Union of the twenty-first century.

The enlarged Union must be democratic and effective in making policy, managing the single currency, the euro, addressing the challenges of globalization, confronting the new dangers and threats which were so dramatically highlighted by the events of last September, and promoting peace and stability across the globe.

At this point, let me stress that my country, Greece, has been a consistent advocate of enlargement and an ardent supporter of comprehensive reform of the European Union. In my view, the enlarged European Union must evolve into a full-fledged Political Union with string governmental institutions and policies of a federal nature.

However, we should continue to apply the Community model and method of integration, although the latter must be renewed and reinvigorated. Decentralized federalism based on the Community model constitutes for us the answer to the challenges facing the European Union as it forges ahead with enlargement. Federalism combines unity with diversity, democracy with effective authority and competition with solidarity. Turning the European Union into a federated Political Union with the most competitive sustainable economy in the world, guaranteeing full employment, solidarity and ecological balance, must be our new “European Project”.

The Union, as I said, must be thoroughly democratic and legitimate, close to the European citizen, responsive to the needs of European society and an active player in the international system. To shape such a Union requires bold and imaginative political decisions. It requires above all the amalgamation of all treaty instruments into a Constitution, clear, simple and understandable by the wiper public and the ordinary citizen – a constitution that will accelerate, not freeze, the process of integration and underpin the democratic nature of the Union.

The European Project moreover requires:

1^st A restatement of the Union’s fundamental values and objectives, in order to ensure that they serve the real needs of European society and its citizens,

2^nd The further development of the Union’s policies and instruments in those areas where the European citizen wants “more” not “less Europe”. After the completion of the monetary union, the need highlighted is to strengthen the economic union, the letter “E” of the EMU project – by reinforcing macroeconomic coordination and dealing with the problems of the taxation and fiscal policy,

3^rd The arming of the Union with the necessary instruments, institutions and capabilities that would allow it to act as a credible player in the international system. In this context, the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) must develop into an effective system for resolving crises and securing peace and stability and must strengthen the security of the Member States and the Union as a whole. In our view, we must progressively develop ESDP into a collective defense system, starting with the extension of the so-called “Petersburg tasks”, without undermining, however, the role of NATO in any way. We must also bolster the Union’s presence and influence in the international economic system. We should help manage better the world economy, reform the international financial institutions and confront the challenges of globalization.

Finally, the European project requires the transformation of the Union’s institutional system into a democratically structured governmental system relying on new means of legitimization and on the drastic extension of qualified majority voting and co-decision. The European Commission and the European Parliament must continue to occupy a central place in such a system. Let me state clearly that we regard the European Commission as the indispensable, supranational institution of the Union’s system, both present and future.

But, whatever course we follow, we must always bear in mind that the Union constitutes first and foremost “a delicate system of solidarity and cohesion”. The very term “community” denotes exactly this: that whatever we build rests on a system of shared values and on the notion of solidarity.

The triptych upon which the Union’s balance rests is clear:

· First, internal market for competition

· Second, economic and monetary union for cooperation, strength and discipline

· Third, economic and social cohesion for solidarity and real convergence.

This triptych is indispensable as its components are mutually reinforcing.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Greece’s message is clear: we must forge ahead with a comprehensive, balanced strategy for the transformation of the European Union into a Political Union. But it would be wrong to think that it will be possible to obtain the necessary compromises for the development of the Union, if attempts are made to weaken vital elements of the Union’s policy and institutional system. Redistribution and welfare cannot be subtracted from the Union’s policy mix.

The European Union is embarking upon a new journey, a journey whose destination must be quite clear. We want to arrive at a democratic and social Union with effective supranational institutions, strategic leadership, strong redistributive policies and a budget to underpin the single currency and the single market. A Union as a factor of stability and prosperity embracing all the democratic European countries that want to join in the European adventure, thus realizing the objective for a Continent “whole and free” built on the values of democracy, justice and solidarity.