Extracts from a speech by French president François Mitterrand to the
European Parliament Strasbourg, 17 January 1995. SOURCE: Debates of the
European Parliament 1994/95, no. 4-456/45-51.
Besides the essential coordination of our policies .... we must also, in
the longer term, build the foundations of a Europe in which renewed - and, I
hope, strong, sound and lasting - economic growth can take place. This will
be possible, if we prove capable of using three of our major assets to the
full. What is the first of those assets? It is the size of our internal
market. So far, we have essentially succeeded in removing the
administrative, customs and regulatory barriers which partitioned this vast
economic area. That is the task that was accomplished by means of the Single
European Act. We now have to eliminate or reduce the remaining barriers -
which are far from insignificant - including the physical barriers which
still restrict the free movement of people, goods and ideas. This is the
aim, for example, of the trans-European networks programme, whereby from
north to south, from east to west, the people of Europe will be connected by
means of modern, fast and safe air, rail and road transport systems; energy
supplies will be channelled to all our regions; and information will be
exchanged by means of the most advanced technology and infrastructure. What
progress, ladies and gentlemen; and how much stronger and proud of ourselves
we shall feel if we manage to achieve this, rather than letting our national
communications networks end at our frontiers!
Our second major asset is, of course, economic and monetary union, which
is the natural and essential complement, in my view, to the single market,
and without which the single market - which I and, of course, others were so
anxious to achieve, and which was the object of so much hard work - would be
a recipe for anarchy and the worst forms of unfair competition.
