«Η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση δεν είναι σε καλή κατάσταση», παραδέχεται ο Ζαν-Κλοντ Γιουνκέρ

Mr President,

Honourable Members of the European Parliament,

Today is the first time during my mandate as President of the European Commission that I have the honour to address this House on the State of our European Union.

I would therefore like to recall the political importance of this very special institutional moment.

The State of the Union address is foreseen explicitly by the Framework Agreement that governs the relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission. This Agreement provides that “[e]ach year in the first part-session of September, a State of the Union debate will be held in which the President of the Commission shall deliver an address, taking stock of the current year and looking ahead to priorities for the following years. To that end, the President of the Commission will in parallel set out in writing to Parliament the main elements guiding the preparation of the Commission Work Programme for the following year.”

The State of the Union address requires the President of the Commission to take stock of the current situation of our European Union and to set priorities for the work ahead.

And it launches the interinstitutional process leading to a new Work Programme of the European Commission for the year ahead.

Together with Frans Timmermans, my First Vice-President, this morning I sent a letter to the Presidents of both branches of the European legislator: to President Martin Schulz, and to Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who currently holds the rotating Presidency of the Council. This letter sets out in detail the numerous actions the Commission intends to take by means of legislation and other initiatives, from now until the end of 2016. We are proposing an ambitious, focused, and intense legislative agenda that will require Commission, Parliament and Council to work closely and effectively together.

I will not go into the details of our legislative agenda now. We will have a structured dialogue with the Parliament and the Council on this in the weeks to come.

But I feel that today is not the moment to speak about all this.

I am the first President of the Commission whose nomination and election is the direct result of the outcome of the European Parliament elections in May 2014.

Having campaigned as a lead candidate, as Spitzenkandidat, in the run up to the elections, I had the opportunity to be a more political President.

This political role is foreseen by the Treaties, by means of which the Member States made the Commission the promoter of the general interest of the Union. But the crisis years have diminished this understanding.

This is why I said last September before this House that I wanted to lead a political Commission. A very political Commission.

I said this not because I believe we can and should politicise everything.

I said it because I believe the immense challenges Europe is currently facing – both internally and externally – leave us no choice but to address them from a very political perspective, in a very political manner and having the political consequences of our decisions very much in mind.

Recent events have confirmed the urgent need for such a political approach in the European Union.

This is not the time for business as usual.

This is not the time for ticking off lists or checking whether this or that sectorial initiative has found its way into the State of the Union speech.

This is not the time to count how many times the word social, economic or sustainable appears in the State of the Union speech.

Instead, it is time for honesty.

It is time to speak frankly about the big issues facing the European Union.

Because our European Union is not in a good state.

There is not enough Europe in this Union.

And there is not enough Union in this Union.

We have to change this. And we have to change this now.

Πηγή φωτογραφιών: http://www.politico.eu/

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