Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-31-Speech-4-095"
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"en.20010531.3.4-095"2
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".
As always, European integration is proceeding by a series of tests and necessary measures. The essential test which it has inflicted upon itself for the next few years, and which is also a historical imperative, is, of course, the task of opting to reconcile the geography of the continent with its history, and to carry on with the enlargement which will now enable democratisation and considerable economic reforms to take place in the Central and Eastern European Countries.
The Treaty of Nice, which the Méndez de Vigo report tackles and comments on with great honesty and rigour, is first of all a substantial political choice by a Europe which is finally reunited on the question of its founding values of democracy, freedom, solidarity and culture. This is a considerable political ambition for our future, which on its own would justify the ratification of the Treaty of Nice, though it has to be admitted that the Treaty has not provided us with the institutional reforms to enable us to exercise, democratically and consistently, a European political power which is held by at least twenty-seven countries.
The difficulty in reaching agreement at Nice, even among fifteen countries, on the future institutions of the Union, is proof, if proof were needed, of the limitations of the inter-governmental approach in a Union consisting of an even greater number of Member States.
This is why I welcome the fact that our rapporteur is proposing to create a convention, based on the convention which drew up the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in order to make preliminary plans for and to propose to a future IGC a Constitution for the Europe of the future.
This step, let us not deny it, will constitute a historic moment in European integration, and its task will be to link our peoples and their future in a way which will be irreversible.
This is why a democratic and public debate, a debate which is open to all our peoples, must precede this pre-constitutional stage, so as to remove any ambiguities about the kind of Europe that we want to build together. Is it to be a political Europe or a business Europe? Is it to be a powerful Europe or a club of countries paralysed by the rule of consensus?
The public debate decided on at Nice, and the convention method which we have just affirmed here, are the conditions for this imperative, which is to render more democratic the debate on Europe and what is at stake in Europe."@en1
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