New economic strategy "question of survival" - EU leaders (Roundup)

By Sinikka Tarvainen Jan 8, 2010, 17:28 GMT

Madrid - The European Union's top officials on Friday urged the union to renew its economic strategy and to regain influence over climate talks as it finds its economic and political leadership increasingly challenged in the global world.

The economy and climate change will be at the top of the agenda at the EU's special summit on February 11, the bloc's first full-time president Herman Van Rompuy said as Spain and the EU were inaugurating Madrid's six-month EU presidency.

Van Rompuy held talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso prior to an evening musical event at the Madrid opera in the presence of King Juan Carlos.

At a joint press conference, Zapatero said the entry into force of the EU's Lisbon Treaty launched 'a new era, a new opportunity, a new government for united policies especially in economic matters and foreign policy.'

Van Rompuy said the EU needed 'structural changes' to be able to finance its social model, which amounted to a 'European way of life,' describing the changes as a 'matter of survival.'

The EU president said the union's problems included too little investment in research and development, insufficient labour mobility, too little risk capital and 'problems in the labour market.'

Barroso described the EU as standing at an 'essential moment of globalization in which Europe must work in a more articulated and ambitious way.'

The three leaders also stressed the need for the EU to regain influence in the global debate on climate change.

The EU was 'on the defensive' against the world's emerging powers following its humiliation at United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen, Van Rompuy said.

Van Rompuy downplayed concerns that he might have problems sharing power with Zapatero, the first EU rotating president to work together with a permanent president.

The two would cooperate 'very closely,' Van Rompuy pledged.

'If the telephone rings in time of crisis, I would prefer it to ring in the office of the permanent president,' Zapatero said.

Priorities of the Spanish EU presidency will include speeding up membership negotiations with Turkey, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told journalists earlier in the day.

Spain wants to open up several new negotiation areas and boost efforts to resolve the conflict over Cyprus, which is one of the main obstacles in the talks, the minister said.

Spain meanwhile set out a low-key programme focused on EU reorganization and economic recovery Friday as it formalized its presidency plan.

The programme set the full enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty, which is meant to streamline decisionmaking, and a debate on the EU's next 10-year economic strategy as the focal points of the Spanish EU presidency.

The programme was presented a day after Zapatero controversially suggested that EU member states which fail to invest enough in research and economic growth should be penalized.

Observers say one reason that an economic plan known as the Lisbon strategy - which is distinct from the Lisbon Treaty - failed is that it did not set penalties for countries which missed their targets for investment in areas such as innovation - a defect Zapatero's comments seemed designed to address.

The proposal is likely to spark heated debate among member states, which are reluctant to accept more EU oversight of their spending.

Zapatero was 'very ambitious,' Van Rompuy said in a reference to the proposal, conceding that 'he was right to be ambitious. We think the sense of urgency is much bigger than 10 years ago.'