During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, presents the programme of the incoming Belgian presidency to the MEPs.

Strasbourg

plenary session

speech

LETERME, Yves (BE)

Belgian Presidency of the EU (T)

Programme of the Belgian presidency: extracts from the presentation by Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council

Arrival of Yves Leterme, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council. Handshake with Members and with EC Jose Manuel Barroso (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (French), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, The first challenge for Europe is quite clear. We have to have sustainable economic growth and to do that financial stability as well, in fact we need to restore our economic and financial stability, reinstall budgetary discipline without damaging off European growth and make sure we have at least 2% growth on annual basis.

SOUNDBITE (French), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, We won't have sustainable growth without social cohesion, the second challenge that Europe faces is the second priority of our presidency and that is why Belgium made sure that in the EU 2020 strategy the objective of the fight against poverty is being broadened out to take on the broader concept of social cohesion for this reason as well as the reason of encouraging growth we need to increase the number of people who are in work.

SOUNDBITE (French), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, Europe has won the telecoms competition but we haven't done so well on the question of IT we need to make sure that we win the green revolution and make sure that we establish a high performing green technology sector, Europe has an excellent reputation when it comes to research but the USA and China are hot on our heels when it comes to transforming the results of research into succesfull innovation and industry.

SOUNDBITE (French), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, On the question of growth and innovation ther is also a specific dossier which we want to get moving under our presidency and that is the question of European patterns, we've been waiting for 30 years to round up this topic; we need to think abour European industry , our companis in particular SMEs , think of all the nergy and money wasted by the fact that there is not a single pattern procedure.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, The protection of environment and the climate is the third major challenge whcih Europe and the EU faces , this is the thrid ambition of the Belgian European Presidency

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, The EU in the coming months needs to be much more assertive anduse al the leverage it posesses to maje sure that other major playersand other major polluters need to be brougth on board to make sure that there is an ambitious plan to protect our planet.

SOUNDBITE (German), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, The security and safety of our citizens and their freedom is a fourth major challenge for EUrope , the EU needs to become aspace of justice , security, and freedom more than ever and that's why for the implementation of what was decided by the Swedish presidency namely the Stockholm programme , is something we need to move forward. the work on common immigration and asylum set of rights is something we think is very important when it comes to justice and crime we need to make sure that there is mutual recognition of the rulings by Member States in criminal law and therefore we also need a European system of the control and use of evidence and when it comes to fighting terrorism.

SOUNDBITE (English), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, Last but not least the fifth challenge confronting the EU , its role on the international scene.

SOUNDBITE (English), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, As I already mentioned the Copenhagen summit painfully demonstrated that the world's largest trading block, that being rich and attractive and the self proclaimed role model of soft power does not buy us sufficient internaitonal bargaining power. The EU has to developmore leverage to bring others on board and create coalitions for the realisation of its objectives of peace, sustainable development; for security, for free trades which is also fair . This requires more than ever that the Union speaks wiht one voice, and preferably wiht one mouth.

SOUNDBITE (English), Yves LETERME, Belgian Prime Minister and President of the Council, You are of course aware of the fact that elections have taken place in my country and that the negotiations for the formation of a new coalition will take sometime and that my government is the so called care taker governement, well I'ed like to assure you that this will not at all impaired the vigourous enthousiasm of our presidency, this 12th presidency is supported by a large consensus in my country and by a long European tradition.