Zapatero, Van Rompuy en Barroso willen werk maken van economie en klimaat (en)

The Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero i; the permanent president of the European Council,Herman Van Rompuy i; and the president of the European Commission (EC), José Manuel Durão Barroso i, have got the new rotating Presidency underway by promising to focus their work in the next six months on coming out of the economic crisis and combating climate change.

After meeting at Moncloa Palace, the three leaders explained that these two aims will be the main focus of the informal European Council which Van Rompuy has convened for 11 February in Brussels.

The idea is that at this Council the heads of state and government will begin, informally, to debate the aims of the ‘2020 Strategy’, which will establish a new Community economic framework for the next decade, which could entail sanctions for those countries which do not comply with the aims it defines.

It will be ‘a deep debate of ideas’ according to Zapatero, who plans to get all countries involved from the beginning in devising this common strategy, which is the successor to the aims of the Lisbon Agenda.

The three politicians agreed that the difference between that strategy for economic growth and the one that is now being pursued is that we now have experience of the worst economic crisis in the last thirty years, and, furthermore, European countries are more aware of the need to speak with a single voice, in the face of globalisation and the new global balance of power.

Van Rompuy insisted that ‘we cannot allow the social model and European way of life to be put at risk’ and therefore called for regional, national and European authorities ‘to cooperate closely´.

For his part, Barroso declared that ‘we cannot afford the luxury of continuing as we have done up to now,’ and that ‘the 2020 strategy must lead us to an economy which is capable of sustaining the European interest in the context of globalisation.’ ‘Our position is very clear; in the international context the EU i must equip itself with a common system of work and coordination.’

Zapatero also contended that ‘if we Europeans unite more, we will achieve more for the well-being of the citizens.’

The discussion about the 2020 strategy will begin at the Council on 11 February and will continue with a structured debate at the Spring Summit of heads of state and government, with the idea of it being approved in June, still within the six months of the Spanish Presidency.

At the same time, the EC is working on defining ideas about the policies which this strategy has to promote.

In relation to climate change, Van Rompuy declared that ‘there is no reason for feeling pessimistic about the outcome’ of the recent Copenhagen summit, although he admitted that the EU had more ambitions aims for slowing down climate change.