Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-15-Speech-2-041"
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"en.20000215.3.2-041"2
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"Madam President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I am not sure which to go by: the strategic objectives for 2000 to 2005 or your speech for 2000 to 2010? Have you already included your second term of office?
There is no future for a Union which is merely a geo-strategic concept or for a Union which is merely a free trade zone. But the Union will only continue to be more than a market and to be accredited by the people of Europe if it sees itself as a community of destinies. That goes far beyond your new economic and social agenda or a new, better quality of life. Not only the Commission, not only the European Parliament but also the people and the states in our European Union will have to find new answers to the question of how and why we want to live and work together. In doing so, we need, no less, to reinvent the European Union, but without destroying the present Union.
But seriously. As it enlarges, the Union needs to be strengthened through streamlining and demarcation. First, streamlining. What you say in your programme about concentrating on the core functions of the Commission is only the beginning. The activities of the entire Union must be reduced to core areas of policy. In other words, a social, ecologically-orientated market, a secure currency, guaranteed civil rights internally and representation of common interests externally. It is not just that we need to speak out in the world with one voice; it is what we want to say with this voice that it is important.
Secondly, the new “in” word is flexibility. However, increasing flexibility can or quickly threatens to turn into intergovernmentalisation. We must hold fast to joint decision-making institutions which embrace the Member States. That also applies to the inclusion of the civil society, which is a welcome step. Our citizens do not need any new institutions and certainly no new mixing of powers.
Transparency does not mean more access to more paper; to our citizens, transparency means greater clarity at long last as to who takes decisions in Brussels and Strasbourg, when and with what right. That is transparency.
Thirdly, the European Union cannot and should not enlarge endlessly. Its borders are set not by how may countries want to join, but by how many countries it can accommodate.
If the price of enlargement is the watering-down or even the break-up of the present Union, then it must not be paid. It is too high a price, not only for the Member States already in the Union but also for the states which want to join the Union."@en1
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