A Note From Gisela Stuart
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People of Europe,
Over the past twelve months our region has, I believe, finally emerged from some adverse times. Our membership is healthy. Nations are talking to each other once again. And even our Council has swung back into action, with healthy debates and legislation being passed.
Reviving the activity of this region and its institutions has been my single guiding priority while in office, and it is unfortunate that this priority has taken up so much of my attention, perhaps to the extent that I have been unable to pursue many of the policies I sought to pursue when I was first elected.
I shall have to be content with the new-found activity of this region being my legacy, and I am proud of that legacy. So too can my colleagues, Commissioner Drake and Commissioner Clinton-Mezvinsky. This has been a joint effort throughout, and without their support and hard work, there was a real chance that our region would have withered to nothing.
At this point I feel confident enough to say that our work is done. I recognise that elections, and therefore the end of my second and final term in office, have been overdue for some time; and now it is clear that we have the political activity here in Europolis to sustain elections. Therefore I am announcing that the Commission election process will be starting immediately, allowing for the new Commission and ECoJ to take office on September 7th.
It has been an immense privilege to serve the European Union and help guide it through a difficult patch in its history. There is more to do to entrench the gains that we have made over the course of my two terms - to develop our membership, to make clearer to our member states what they get out of EU membership, and more - but it must fall to someone else to lead that project, and over the next three weeks it must fall to the nations of Europe to choose those people.