EPP Congress: we need to better explain the advantages of Europe to its people.

The European People's Party (EPP) is holding its statutory Congress in Bucharest, Romania, on 17-18 October 2012. Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, is leading the Group's delegation to the Congress. Addressing 1200 participants from 40 coun­tries, Joseph Daul underlined the importance of Europe's unity, the need for a political union and to move towards greater fiscal and social harmonisation.

The Chairman of the largest Group in the European Parliament said: "Europe is the Common Agriculture Policy, regional policy and Schengen. It is Erasmus and its 2 million students. It is enlargement. It's our neighbourhood policy, creating an area of partnership, prosperity and peace. Europe means concrete policies from which Europeans benefit every day. Today, it is our duty to go further in integration, for more growth, more jobs and more prosperity."

In the Chairman's view, to be completely effective, Europe must move towards fiscal and social harmonisation, achieved through a solid financial framework and a fully accomplished Single Market: "We need a solid financial framework to reinforce an ambitious European budget which is an investment budget. There will be no growth without investment. And without investment in infrastructure, research and innovation, there will be no sustainable growth. We have to step up our efforts to complete the Single Market. In doing so, we will also increase mobility on the European labour market and we will better fight unemployment, particularly youth unemployment."

Joseph Daul called for a more united Europe: "Our mission is for more European awareness. Europe has changed the world. Europe is the assertion of human dignity. The Nobel Peace Prize has come at the right moment. It reminds us that Europe works best when we are united. We in the EPP know this, we who have always been at the forefront of the European project. In the EPP, with the Founding Fathers, we are the craftsmen and guarantors of a successful Europe. We always have been, and always will be."