Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-14-Speech-3-040"
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"en.20010314.1.3-040"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, never in my career as an MEP, and I have been a Member since 1979, has there been a treaty which leaves one with such a bitter taste as this one. That is hardly surprising, for whoever takes stock of the chaos which the government leaders created in Nice, is not amazed that all eyes are now fixed on post-Nice. That is, after all, the quickest way to make people forget Nice. One of the problems is that it has now become impossible to explain to any citizen how vote weighting works, or what the outcome of the Commissioners’ rota system is. Neither is it clear how many MEPs there will be between 2004 and 2009. Post-Nice is thus not a normal follow-up of Nice, but a harsh necessity to rectify what has gone wrong as soon as possible. What needs to be done? The democratic hole which was left as a result of the fact that the European Parliament will not be receiving codecision power on all the topics which will soon be decided on by qualified majority, must be filled at the earliest opportunity. In actual fact, we should already be reaching an interinstitutional agreement on this. It is disgraceful that power has been removed from the national parliaments and has subsequently not been transferred to the European Parliament.
Secondly, there should be a fair distribution of national and European powers, which must be laid down in a European constitution. The latter should also include the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. I happen to share Mrs Lynne’s opinion that the document is sound.
Thirdly, the current IGC procedure must be replaced by an interinstitutional convention which is capable of preparing these actions. The damage which Nice has done must be repaired before the next European elections, in other words by 2003, for we cannot afford to carry this burden into those elections in 2004.
Finally, Madam President, you mentioned citizens. But do you realise that in the three-way discussion on this notorious regulation on access to documents, we constantly meet with a Council in full body armour, which does not give an inch and which is causing us the greatest of difficulty? Madam President, Mrs Lynne mentioned the word ‘strong’. There must have been eleven socialist governments in Nice. Well, they were anything but strong on the day. Let us not beat about the bush."@en1
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