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Staffan Nilsson's Comment (former EESC President 2010-2013)
Disponible aussi en version française
Following an in-depth debate, political group leaders and the President of the European Parliament decided this week in Strasbourg that the European Parliament would suspend its cooperation with the Council on five files unless a satisfactory outcome is achieved on Schengen governance.
I am not a strong supporter of blocking files, but…I am getting weary of Member States who do not understand that it is now more important than ever to set aside political vanity and national preferences and agree to compromise, to share the burden and to take responsibilities!
As long as Europe appears to be a set of puzzle pieces, no one (the markets, the rest of the world, even Europeans) will see Europe as a whole. There always seem to be some Member States who take one piece out of the puzzle. This is also one of the reasons why we have got to this crisis. Isn't it time to assemble all the pieces, so that people in Europe can enjoy a better life? They want to be able to choose where to move, to get a job or to set up a business. That is the Single Market.
As long as Member States fight about re-closing or re-opening borders, about welcoming immigrants or getting rid of them, Europe will remain an unfinished puzzle.
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25 Jun 2012 15:15
An example of how to untie knots...
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Karol Wojtyla
16.X.1978
"The unforgiveable sins this earth must confront and overcome are Nationalism, capitalism, and hoarding. The idea of every nation should be forgot, price should be struck from the commons, and princes should be seen for the devils they are. The sins include our church, secret societies, and other religions which make of the spirit of God a divide."
The Holy Father's last rites declaration - 2nd April 2005 -
22 Jun 2012 18:47
Perhaps we are dealing with a collective failure of perception within the leadership of the human community at the Rio Summit that results in an inadequate reality orientation to the world we inhabit as well as to the 'placement' of the human species within the order of living things. Not nearly enough leaders see that there can be no sensibly functioning global economy without the natural resources and ecosystem services only the Earth can provide. No living Earth, no human economy.
There are no substitutes for certain vital resources and environmental stabilization mechanisms of the Earth. Geo-engineering of the Earth and its ecology, as a way of trying to protect and preserve what is being degraded and destroyed on our watch, could be a monumental fool's errand.