Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-12-Speech-2-153"
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"en.20010612.8.2-153"2
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"Mr President, may I pick up on a point that Konrad Schwaiger has just made. I too believe – and I am speaking here on behalf of my group – that there is a need to redefine the obligations of the Council in terms of its accountability.
We all know, of course, that the Council acted correctly in the purely formal sense – this was the honourable Member’s line of argument too – and that the Council is not under any formal obligation to consult Parliament. However, I do not believe we are talking about formal procedures here, but rather about proper substantive political cooperation. As far as proper cooperation is concerned, the Council is still falling far short of its duty to Parliament. My wish for the future is that the Council, instead of constantly invoking the formal position, will find an interinstitutional procedure that enables us to engage in some decent cooperation in future in the field of trade policy.
What you have seen this time will be seen more often in the future. But let us not be under any illusions: trade policy is becoming an ever wider field, and many issues go beyond trade policy and into the domain of international politics. These numerous trade disputes with the United States are a prime example. If you want Parliament to stand by you – and Parliament is with the Commission on the substantive issue, as Konrad Schwaiger said – you must ensure that we can cooperate properly on matters of substance. You must look on us as an adult partner, even if the Treaty does not yet formally recognise our adulthood.
I believe that the institutions have always found ways and means of cooperating in the past. I wish the Council would do likewise and find a new procedure. It may be that a discussion or briefing session would be held after each meeting of the special committee referred to in Article 133(3). Or, if the Council initiates official procedures, it could come to the parliamentary committee and explain the situation. I believe these would be ways of cooperating, and they would remove much of what I believe to be utterly unnecessary bitterness from the present debate. We largely agree on the substance of this issue. I also hope that many of the honourable Members who signed the letter have come to see that this was not the right course of action. May I therefore urge the Council most earnestly to venture forward, perhaps even today, and make the case for a new form of cooperation."@en1
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