mr president the aim of eu twenty twenty should be to free the potential of the european citizen
all too often we forget that our strategies for growth are put in place for the benefit of our citizens and the future of our children
there is no doubt that the lisbon strategy failed when it attempted to include everything
with such a broad agenda the focus was lost and so were the possibilities to achieve the ambitious goals that were set
for the twenty twenty strategy to be more effective the format needs to be changed into something completely different
the work should be targeted at the few specific areas where the fundamentals of sustainable growth should be addressed
as the only directly elected body of the eu and with full codecision powers in place this parliament will have its say in the twenty twenty strategy
in order to ensure legitimacy and openness the commission and the council will therefore be wise to include parliament in the ongoing work of the twenty twenty strategy
just as openness and transparency are essential for the creation of a citizen's europe they are also key instruments in avoiding crises in public finances such as those currently hitting countries across the union
everyone is pointing their fingers at greece but there are also other member states that have avoided benchmarking deceived europe about their deficits and cheated with their financial statistics
the method of open coordination has turned into a closed collusion and open humiliation
remember what is true for citizens is also true for governments
freedoms also bring responsibilities
it is now time for governments across europe to take that responsibility seriously because the problems we face are serious
