Speech
City Hall of Stockholm 20 April 2009
Cecilia Malmström, Minister for EU Affairs
Speech at the 60th International Session of the European Youth Parliament
Your royal highness, Madame Commissioner, Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for the invitation to attend the 60th Jubilee International Session of the European Youth Parliament. It is a great honour and a great pleasure for me to open this meeting.
The European Youth Parliament has given many young people a chance to deepen their knowledge about Europe. It has also provided an insight into European parliamentary procedures. Contacts and networks have developed between students and between teachers. A foundation has been laid for further co-operation.
To meet people from different countries, different backgrounds, different languages and cultures, but with a common aim of trying to achieve results for the benefit of the European citizens, is truly an experience. I loved every moment of my life as an MEP and I hope that you will get a flair of how it is to work under these conditions.
From studying your programme I have seen that you will discuss a range of questions with high relevance for the future of Europe - How can we contribute to the negotiations of a follow up to the Kyoto protocol in Copenhagen? How can we improve the EU's relations with it's neighbours? How can we encourage innovations and entrepreneurship in a time of economic crisis? These are also challenges we will deal with during the upcoming Swedish presidency.
The year of 2009 is really something special for all of us interested in European politics. With the European parliament elections, a new commission, maybe a new Treaty - and with the Swedish presidency around the corner - the EU truly is in the limelight.
I understand that this international session is organized as a prelude to the Swedish EU presidency, starting the 1st of July. I look forward to the Swedish presidency with great anticipation.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
This conference will focus on environment, energy and sustainable development. The theme is well chosen. Tackling climate change is indeed the biggest task facing the world today. It requires global solutions in which the EU must be on the offensive in order to reach agreements that will match the high expectations of European citizens.
Managing climate change is a top priority of the Swedish presidency. We will try to play a crucial role in ensuring that the EU delivers on important issues relating to climate, environment and energy.
Most important is of course to contribute to a global post-Kyoto agreement at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December.
Our object is clear. The ambition is to get a large part of the world to back a new agreement. This will not be easy, but we will try our outmost.
The European Union can show leadership on the issue of climate. But it requires that the Union act as one and honour previous commitments. The economic crisis cannot be used as an excuse when the bill of the climate package is to be paid. The citizens of Europe expect the Union to deliver on this issue.
During 2009 the question of energy supply and energy security have made it to the top of the European agenda. One important background is off course the energy crisis that paralysed large parts of Europe in January. Worst off were countries like Macedonia, Slovakia and Bulgaria, whose citizens where forced to endure almost two weeks of freezing cold.
How do we solve the question of energy supply? The answer is not unambiguous. Nonetheless, the Swedish government firmly believes that part of the solution lays in the development of alternative sources of energy and energy efficiency. The efforts to put a common energy market in place also constitutes a vital part.
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The world is experiencing the worst economic crisis since the 1930´s. Despite this, Europe has proven to stand strong and unified, acting decisively to the current acute situation. It inspires me with hope in a time of great uncertainty and economic unrest.
I'm convinced that our economic development and future prosperity in Europe will depend on how we together can shape better conditions to respond successfully to opportunities and challenges in a world of new markets and new competitors. To ensure this we need open markets.
Protectionism cannot make Europe wealthier. We will gain nothing by trying to keep our doors shut, and we will all be losers if we try to isolate our economies from globalisation.
All of these challenges call for a strategic, ambitious and well-coordinated policy for jobs and sustainable development in Europe. During the Swedish presidency we will lay the foundations for a renewed strategy for growth, post Lisbon. The focus will be on the main challenges of the 2010 and 20's.
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The Baltic Sea Region has undergone a tremendous development. Today eight of the states in the Baltic Sea region are Members of the European Union and an integrated part of the internal market. However, considerable challenges remain that we need to solve in close cooperation - How do we save the Baltic Sea from eutrophication and pollution? How do we make the Baltic sea region secure, prosperous and accessible?
We want to address these challenges. That is why Sweden has launched the idea of an EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The ambition is that the Strategy will be adopted by the European Council during the Swedish Presidency. My hope for the Strategy is first and foremost that it will be a useful tool with concrete measures that really matters to the people in the region.
Further, on the 17th and 18th of September I will return to this beautiful building since the government is hosting a ministerial conference on the Baltic Sea Strategy with participants from all 27 EU-members.
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My vision for Europe is a Europe that is open and secure. This is also a priority for the Swedish presidency. To transform this vision into reality we need to work hard.
The fight against cross-border crime must continue. During the presidency Sweden we will put extra emphasis on the fight against trafficking in human beings and illicit drugs. The police authorities must be given better tools, for example though better exchange of information. We will also work to adopt a new five-year programme in the area of justice and home affairs, the so-called Stockholm programme.
We will develop a common migration policy based on an effective, coordinated and balanced approach. We will do our utmost to create a Common European Asylum System and to harmonise the area further to maintain long-term sustainability of our asylum systems.
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
This Wednesday I have been invited to speak at the Humboldt university in Berlin, just a few blocks away from where the Wall came down twenty years ago. Since then a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe have gone from dictatorship to democracy, rule of law and market economy. And in just a few days from now, five years will have passed since we welcomed a number of them as members of the European Union.
Enlargement has peacefully united much of Europe after generations of division and conflict. Despite this, there are countries that wants the enlargement process to come to a grinding halt. In view of the serous economic situation the critics say that we simply cannot afford more members.
Sweden does not agree with this view. All of us gain from having stabile and democratic neighbours. The economic crisis must not be used as an excuse to shut the door of enlargement. While sticking to conditionality, we must keep the promises we have made to countries like Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Turkey and we must keep momentum in the enlargement process. That is why the issue of enlargement is one of the priorities of the Swedish presidency.
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My ambition is that the Swedish presidency will concern not only a few, but a majority of the Swedish citizens, especially young people. That is why we have made special efforts to engage youths all around Sweden in a wide range of activities during the presidency. I would like to mention two of them here.
One activity that lies very close to my heart is the project of Young reporters. The purpose is to channel young peoples interest in European issues, by letting them act as real live journalists reporting from the eleven informal ministerial meetings held in different places in Sweden during the presidency period.
We will also organize activities focusing on the challenge of climate change, an issue we know a lot of young people is committed to. Among other things, we will arrange an exhibition on climate change, where the visitor will be able to see the connection between his or her behaviour and what goes on at the EU-level in the negotiations leading up to the meeting in Copenhagen.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
You have an exciting programme ahead of you over the coming days. You will debate some of the most important questions concerning the future of Europe, questions that will be of high priority also to us during the Swedish presidency. In doing so you show that European politics is not only discussed in the hallways of Brussels, but concerns us all.
I wish you all the best during the session here in Stockholm and for upcoming international discussions.
Thank you
