Mr President Ladies and Gentlemen,
The agenda of tomorrow's Council includes once again a discussion on the Europe 2020 strategy prepared by the Commission. The Council will also review the competitive "Europe 2030 - challenges and opportunities" project, prepared by the so-called reflection group. The European Parliament has presented many times its reservations on the objectives of and the means used to carry out the Europe 2020 strategy. I myself drew the Commission's attention to the fact that this programme must not result in reducing the financial resources for the new member states, including Poland. The document of the council of wise men has not been presented to our Chamber yet. I believe that the voice of the European Parliament should be more meaningful than the opinion of an informal group, established on an ad-hoc basis in 2007. It is, incidentally, not controlled by anybody and does not have a democratic mandate. In the context of a huge overflow of projects concerning the future of Europe, such as 2020 and 2030, I propose that our Parliament not lagged behind and developed its own Europe 2050 strategy.

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen!

The Europe 2020 strategy we are discussing has primarily an ideological dimension. The strategy sets out a number of ambitious goals, such as to increase individuals' vocational activity, produce university and college diplomas for 40% of citizens, and increase the budget for innovation. What is particular, no sanctions are to be imposed on countries which will fail to accomplish such beautiful ideas. The impression is that the authors of the strategy have not taken account of the serious crisis in Greece, and soon possibly in Spain and Portugal. It may lead not only to the collapse of the euro zone and erosion of the European Union. Even at this dramatic moment, the European agenda consistently includes, for example, recommendations to reduce CO2 emissions by 30%, which will paralyse the economies of East and Central European countries, including Poland. These countries may also suffer as a result of a narrowed impact of the cohesion policy. There are many signs suggesting that the utopian socialist project called Europe 2020 will share the fate of the Lisbon strategy. Let us hope it does not do any major damage in the meantime.

Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On the eve of the European Council, which is to determine the new EU economic strategy, it is necessary to learn lessons from the fiasco of the Lisbon Strategy and look at all the Member States with solidarity and honesty. In order to be able to compete on global markets, we have to be innovative, but if most funds are appropriated only for innovation, many East and Central European countries, including Poland, will be discriminated against. There are great expectations that the airports, roads, railways and Internet infrastructure will develop thanks to the EU funds, as it happened in Spain, Portugal and other EU Member States, The EU eastern borderland, for example the Lublin region, should become top priorities and a special budget line should be created for them in the 2020 strategy. The Council must not send a signal that the poor UE regions will have to finance the ideas which will benefit only the old EU Member States.