Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-12-Speech-2-057"
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"en.20001212.4.2-057"2
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"Madam President, President Chirac, I am delighted that you have found time today, in contrast to the previous occasion, to listen to my speech. I take it as a welcome sign of the fact that tensions have eased since then. While waiting for the outcome from Nice, I was put in mind of my old mathematics professor. Two out of four problems unsolved elicited a pitiless "unsatisfactory" from him. Until late into Sunday, it looked like Nice too might earn such a mark. Then a compromise was found. In essence, the total compromise is less than the sum of its parts. Nonetheless, from an Austrian point of view, it is a result we can live with.
I personally welcome, above all, the juridification of all stages of the sanctions procedure, especially the facility for the Court of Auditors to exercise control. As an Austrian I know what I am talking about. The rule of law has triumphed here over political arbitrariness. Many have complained about the lack of progress on qualified majority voting. I take a more relaxed view. The heads of state and government may have exercised restraint in certain areas, but at least they did not use their right of veto after long hours of negotiation just for the heck of it. On the contrary, their restraint was driven by serious problems and concerns and the result of informed national opinion, which cannot be swept to one side and must be taken seriously.
How can we make our citizens identify more closely with Europe if we do not heed their concerns? For many citizens, things are simply moving too fast. Many still have no sight of the port into which the European Union is supposed to sail one day. As far as I am concerned, deliberate, considered action makes far more sense than rushing into the fray. However, what is worrying in this situation, and this is something which both I and Mr Poettering have warned against, is that the instrument of reinforced cooperation may be used as a circumvention strategy in areas in which no decision can be reached by a qualified majority. This sort of approach would not only contradict the
clause; it would, in my view, also represent a serious threat to the development of the Union."@en1
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