Florian Rutte-Grüber, President of the Artanian Commission:Dear Colleagues, it is a pleasure for me to stand before this body in this special occasion, the Artanian Parliament's very first State of the Union speech, which I am glad to hold.
Becoming President of the Commission of a recently re-founded Union, and that has had a fresh re-start in terms of Institutions and Works, wasn't easy at all. This Commission started tackling the issue of international rail freight, in a proposal that we hope can be soon implemented in the member states and that in my view, will greatly bolster the effectiveness of Artanian trade and will make our Nations closer between themselves thanks to a renewed commitment to passenger rail service - in my opnion, a fundamental step to transform this Union into a brotherhood of nations.
Moreover, the Union was able for the first time to reach a meaningful foreign policy decision, that was the delivery of humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Endralon - I wish to thank the Hon. Martin Meyers of Luthori for his leadership on that issue.
When the Honorable Jamie McAddam of Rutania asked me to hold this speech, I was grateful for the opportunity, and I believe this speech should be held on a regular basis, from me and my future successors. However, I also must admit that I did not expect to hear some points in his speech. He has called this Commission born as effect of bad-faith negotiations and suggested that this Commission is unable to reach meaningful decisions. I disagree. I will not respond to the complaint he makes in regards of the first point, as the response to the claim is up to the Party leaders who actually negotiated the coalition, but I'd like to analyze with all the Honorable MAPs the second point Mr. McAddams claims - hoping to address his concerns.
We find ourselves, and not just the Commission, not just the Council, not just the Left, Centre or Right bloc, collectively in an experiment, I would say. An experiment to build a working continental Union able to tackle collectively all issues concerning the continent. This experiment has just started, in my view, and we should all strive towards making this Union work at best - great achievements do not take shape overnight, dear Colleagues. To reach what I hope is a collective goal, we need time, we need to make mistakes and we need good-faith cooperation from all to lead this experiment to success, and as President of the Commission I am determined to reach this goal.
What this experiment doesn't need, is bitter and useless partisanship coming from anyone. As an exponent of the Left Bloc, be sure that I will call out these episodes coming from my caucus, and I hope the exponents of the other blocs are ready to follow suit.
Myself, I am not fully satisfied with what the Commission and the Coucil have achieved so far - I believe we can do more. But I am optimistic that ultimately we will be able to reach a satisfactory level of coordinated action that will lead this Union to prosperity. Whether is railways or humanitarian aid, we achieved our best when we're united. This optimism and confidence in the future makes me say that the State of this Union is in an adolescent stage, slowly growing towards adulthood, again, only reachable with extensive mutual work and understanding from all the great members of our great Union.
In the next months, the Commission will be presenting new legislation to address the Union's issues, doing so in coordination with all the Commissioners.
Thank you very much for your time.