Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-13-Speech-4-134"

PredicateValue (sorted: default)
rdf:type
dcterms:Date
dcterms:Is Part Of
dcterms:Language
lpv:document identification number
"en.20000413.3.4-134"2
lpv:hasSubsequent
lpv:speaker
lpv:spokenAs
lpv:translated text
"As representatives of the Swedish Christian Democrats, who view enlargement towards the East as being clearly the most important issue for the EU, I wish to make the following remarks before the Heads of Government and State discuss the European Union’s powers and forms of decision making at the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference. 9) The financing of the EU should not be completely independent of contributions by the Member States (paragraph 44.4). 10) Respect for neutral States’ solutions in the field of defence policy and for their right to make their own decisions should be clearly upheld within the framework of the CFSP (paragraph 34). 11) To make it easier for citizens of the Member States to know which institutions are responsible for what, the principle of subsidiarity (to which there are unfortunately no references at all in this report) should be integrated into the Treaty in such a way that the EU’s powers are concentrated upon clearly defined, cross-border core issues. The national parliaments and local authorities should play an important role by ensuring that the principle of subsidiarity is respected and by monitoring governments’ action in the Council. 1) There ought to be one Commissioner per Member State (paragraph 10). This is about the Commission’s legitimacy and future and about its being able to claim popular support. 2) There ought to be at least six Members of the European Parliament per Member State and, thereafter, a degressive proportional system as at present (paragraph 3.2) and not, as the Committee on Constitutional Affairs proposes, only four Members per State, followed by a strict proportional system. This is required if it is to be possible to mirror the political breadth and diversity in each Member State. 3) There ought not to be any pan-European lists or single European constituency (paragraph 4). So as not to make the distance between electors and elected representatives still greater, the Member States should remain as constituencies. 4) 700 should not be set as the upper ceiling for the number of Members of the European Parliament (paragraph 3). Instead, a certain flexibility should be possible, depending upon the number of Member States in the EU. 5) No EU financing of parties which operate at European level should be introduced, nor should any democratically dangerous and arbitrary suspension procedure (paragraph 6). 6) Decisions by qualified majority voting in the Council should not be taken on the basis of a simple majority from the Member States. Instead, it ought to be a two-thirds majority (paragraph 8), and this in order to win legitimacy. 7) A decision as serious as that of suspending a Member State from the EU should require the unanimous agreement of the other Member States and not, as proposed by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, the agreement of four-fifths of the Member States (paragraph 29). 8) Social protection should not be regarded as an issue of Community interest (paragraph 42). In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, this ought instead to remain an issue to be legislated on at national level."@en1

Named graphs describing this resource:

1http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/English.ttl.gz
2http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/Events_and_structure.ttl.gz
3http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/spokenAs.ttl.gz

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph