Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-15-Speech-3-043"
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"en.19990915.5.3-043"2
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"There is one paragraph in the motion for a resolution which I have a lot of sympathy for, and that is paragraph 7 b, in which the criticism is made that the texts to be decided upon within the context of the Schengen collaboration have still not been made public, in spite of the fact that they have been Union law since May of this year. It may then be asked how and in what form the citizens of the Union can take their stand on provisions which are in practice inaccessible. This is the only paragraph which can be supported. Other than in this respect, however, both the report by the Council and the Commission and the proposal prepared by Mr Watson head off in a political direction. Under cover of the concept of an area of security, peace and justice, what we have here is an enormous leap forward in the development of the Union. It is a question of the EU’s making its presence felt to a much greater degree than there is a mandate for among the populations of Europe. The point is that this House suffers from the obsession that more power to Parliament means the same thing as more democracy. If I may say so, that is a very restricted understanding of democracy.
The crux of the matter is that the proposal and the reports from the Council and the Commission, as well as the motion for a resolution under consideration, contemplate a massive transfer of powers to the European Union. We are talking here about the judicial system, criminal law and police powers. In part it is about constructing a Fortress Europe, necessitated partly by the EU’s own policy, but what we are concerned with in particular here is the fact that these parts of the legal culture represent our democracies’ central nervous systems. These, if the proposers have their way, are to be subjected to a supranational system in which dislike for the EU’s Third Pillar is encouraged. Co-operation between States is not working, so a supranational authority is needed. What is being proposed here is the dismantling of a range of democratic mechanisms and, in their place, the construction of supranational systems which will create democratic problems with a vengeance."@en1
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