Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-149"
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"en.20010704.3.3-149"2
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"A European Parliament resolution on the Gothenburg summit might have been useful if it had taken a less offhand approach to the outcome of the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty than the Council did in its conclusions. This is another example of the extremely disturbing decline of democracy in the process of European integration. Alas, the resolution did not do so. Henceforth, however, whenever we consider the future of Europe, and in particular its enlargement, we will have to take this quite unambiguous vote into account.
How can we deplore the very largely anti-democratic nature of the European Union in its present form and pretend to want to remedy this if we do not begin by respecting the clearly expressed wish of the people, in this case of the only nation asked to pronounce on the new treaty by referendum, an eminently democratic procedure?
Following on from two referendums that had already shown the growing gap between Europe as it is and the Europe the people want to see, the Irish people’s decision should give us a salutary shock. The lesson to be drawn from the Irish referendum is that Europe can only endure in the long term if it is founded on respect for the national democracies. We urgently need to review completely the way Europe is being constructed, basing it on principles quite different from those of Nice, which should represent the final manifestation of a process that began with the Single Act and continued with Maastricht and Amsterdam, concluding with a Europe that is now rejected by its people.
Clearly this is not the direction the Belgian presidency wishes to pursue. It in fact proposes to make up for the democratic deficit within the Union by introducing a European tax, although only the national parliaments are democratically entitled to levy taxes. It is in favour of having the future treaty drawn up by bodies whose democratic legitimacy is, if not doubtful, at least very indirect. It exalts the euro, which no nation wished to see introduced and which, on the contrary, is emblematic of a Europe imposed on the people against their wishes.
The Irish lesson does not seem to have been understood. Sooner or later, however, we will have to listen to the people. Sooner would be best if we want to restore their belief in a European idea in which they are currently losing faith."@en1
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