Jansa: Facing Up to Global Challenges New Criteria for EU Success
While peace and prosperity formed the basis on which the success of the EU was measured in its first 50 years, the coming 50 years will be measured by how successfully the EU takes on key global challenges, Prime Minister Janez Jansa told the Conference of European Affairs Committees and European Parliament (COSAC) on Wednesday.
Addressing at Brdo pri Kranju representatives of parliaments from EU members and candidate states, the current president of the EU Council highlighted the preservation of the environment, the fight against world poverty, and peace and security as the main global challenges.
Stressing that these key challenges are interrelated, Jansa said that globalisation was showing new faces and that ignoring bleak forecasts was even more irresponsible than it was in the past. In his belief the EU has all the instruments it needs to protect itself from most of the negative consequences of globalisation.
The environment and energy, rising food prices, measures that show Europeans that the openness of the EU increases their security, and the closure of the "network" of Stabilisation and Association Agreements in the Western Balkans are some of the key areas the EU will deal with in the near future, according to Jansa.
He meanwhile pointed out that European parliamentary democracy was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. While the dynamics of cooperation is continuing to grow, additional progress in this respect is heralded by the Lisbon Treaty, Jansa added.
"The extent to which the role of national parliaments is enhanced by the Lisbon Treaty largely depends also on yourselves. The more you cooperate, the more you will be effective in controlling the principle of subsidiarity," Jansa told the parliamentarians.
While the more than 250 participants also discussed the conference's half-yearly report in the morning, the afternoon part of the meeting brought a discussion on cooperation between the EU and the Western Balkans.
Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said police cooperation with neighbouring countries of the EU was very good. He highlighted as a special challenge organised crime related to the so called Balkan route, which also crosses Slovenia and involves trafficking of drugs, people and arms.
The minister added Slovenia was a supporter of the visa liberalisation policy for Western Balkan countries, noting that unified positions and criteria needed to be adopted for all countries in the region.
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