"National parliaments are the guarantors to the success of the Lisbon process", says Graham Watson

12.00.00am GMT Tue 31st Jan 2006

Today, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe hosted an event for liberal parliamentarians from 16 Member States as part of a European Parliament event to debate how Member states can boost economic growth in Europe.

"Economic reform cannot be delivered by the European institutions; it is the job of national governments and parliaments. That is why the contact between lawmakers is so vital", ALDE leader Graham WATSON (Lib Dem, UK) stressed.

Alexander LAMBSDORFF (FDP, Germany) who chaired the meeting, underlined: "Lisbon has been put back on track. It is encouraging to see twenty-five national governments submit action plans for growth and employment despite the fact that there is no legal obligation to do so. The sense of national ownership has grown since the Kok-Report and the mid-term review, a development further strengthened by the second annual meeting of national parliamentarians and MEP's. Liberals and Democrats will continue to support the Lisbon process as it provides the best chance to overcome mass unemployment, which is our continent's paramount economic, social, and human problem".

On the same day as the interparliamentary meeting on enhancing Europe's competitiveness Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy committee adopted a report by ALDE Member Jorgo CHATZIMARKAKIS (FDP, Germany) on the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP). The report sends a strong signal in favour of innovation and small and medium enterprises as recommended by the rapporteur. However the final vote on the report was postponed, as the MEPs wait for a clear indication on future budgetary commitments. CIP, a program to support innovation and SMEs in Europe, was supposed to benefit from € 4.2 billions before its budget was drastically cut down by 70% to €1.7 billions in the December Brussels Compromise. "If the EU wants to achieve its objectives, it has to put its money where its mouth is. We will adopt the report the day we are sure that the programme gets the budget it needs" concluded Chatzimarkakis.