Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-15-Speech-3-065"
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"en.19990915.7.3-065"2
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"Madam President, here we stand in Strasbourg, in the unique tradition of Robert Schuman, whose European Coal and Steel Community was not only a step towards economic integration, which has now been crowned with the euro, but also a step towards political integration. The Council now has the opportunity, at the Tampere Summit, to achieve something like a Coal and Steel Community of freedom, security and justice within this European Union. My only fear is that this may not be the case, and my scepticism is based on a number of points. Firstly, the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Madam President, I am of the view, that it is in fact necessary, for the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission to work together on this on an equal footing, in the manner in which such a Charter of Fundamental Rights should be created. The principal role here must be that of the European Parliament. I find it unacceptable for us to have to act, so to speak, as mere decoration for the national parliaments. In internal committee we were very critical of the composition of this planned body, and we were told by the Presidency of the Council that it was not possible to deviate from the mandate. I find that scandalous! The Council grants itself a mandate and then declares that it cannot deviate from this mandate! I consider that to be absolutist in the extreme. I am therefore of the opinion that we should use today to bring this procedure back to Parliament. The citizens of Europe are represented by the European Parliament. If national parliaments co-operate, so much the better. But I would ask you, please, as the Council, to seek dialogue on this matter with the European Parliament on both the content and the procedure.
Secondly, Tampere will also discuss the question of burden-sharing for civil war refugees and applicants for political asylum. I consider it scandalous that we have not yet decided to introduce set quotas. The Kosovo crisis has shown that, unfortunately, burden-sharing on a voluntary basis does not work. People have maintained that it was used in Kosovo and that it worked there. We were only lucky that thanks to the Nato intervention and thanks to the return of the Kosovo Albanians prepared to rebuild their lives, the flow of refugees was soon brought to a halt again. But we must see quite clearly that in the next crisis we would slip into a catastrophe if we approached that crisis with the same set of procedural instruments as in the Kosovo affair. We therefore need set burden-sharing according to quotas. European solidarity required clear, set rules which must be determined before the crisis arises and not in a mad rush once it is already underway. I would therefore like to say quite clearly, please use this opportunity to make Tampere a real new departure which will bring Europe real political integration beginning with internal security and co-operation in justice, because these are the core elements of statehood and also of the Community."@en1
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