Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-29-Speech-3-045"
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"en.20001129.7.3-045"2
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"Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, a week away from the Nice European Council, we are forced to note that it is still not very clear what institutional measures are going to be adopted. It is highly like that, on the last night of the Council, measures will be adopted which our national parliaments will not have discussed properly and which they will then be required to ratify for the sake of a forced compromise. This is not an appropriate method.
Matters are particularly vague regarding the, to my mind, key issue of the potential extension of majority voting within the Council, particular on two truly vital issues. Firstly, Article 67 on the free movement of persons and on immigration policy. Commitments were made at the time of the Treaty of Amsterdam to the effect that this matter would not be opened for discussion again for five years. As usual, however, commitments have not been kept. As much as we think international cooperation is essential, we find it unacceptable to use majority voting to force the hand of one or more Member States on such issues of sovereignty. Another avenue must be explored, one that is more flexible and more respectful of the decisions of each Member State: the avenue of ‘differentiated cooperation’.
There is another area of uncertainty involving the extension of the Community procedures of Article 133 to the negotiation of international agreements on services, intellectual property and investments. Trade talks have already been communitised, but if the Commission is indeed speaking with a single voice, then this voice is not sufficiently controlled by the Member States. The disastrous consequences of this became apparent in the Uruguay Round. Let us not start again tomorrow with a new multilateral agreement on investment or new talks on agriculture post Seattle.
In trade policy, the key issue today is not extending majority voting but rather restoring the Council’s authority over the Commission and establishing proper scrutiny by the national parliaments. In a word, Mr President-in-Office, stand firm on this. Let us first step up democracy and restore the control of the Member States, then we shall look into transferring jurisdiction."@en1
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