Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-02-Speech-2-028"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20011002.2.2-028"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Mr Prodi, ladies and gentlemen, in support of what Mrs Stenzel has just said, I would like to add that it is never too late and never too soon to hold a debate of this kind. At this particular point I believe that the events of recent weeks have brought more seriousness into politics and that the public is making greater demands on politicians. This provides an opportunity to contribute to a renaissance of political matters and also to a significant renaissance of cooperation between leaders, those in positions of responsibility and the representatives of the people, that is to say the parliaments.
That is how we should approach this debate. When you say in the introduction to your paper that the public feels greater distrust, more apathy and more powerlessness, I agree with you. However, in your second paragraph you say that this problem is acknowledged by national parliaments and governments alike, and that it is particularly acute at the level of the European Union. I have a problem with this wording. We – Parliament and the Commission – are acting as if national governments and national parliaments were on one side and the European Union on the other. The public is particularly aware of this contradiction, with the Member States and the European institutions apparently on opposite sides. We need to make it clear for once and all that we collectively are the European Union! There is virtually no such thing as a European decision without the participation of the national governments, but there are a good many European decisions without codecision by the European Parliament. Codecision leads to transparency and openness and facilitates dialogue, and is therefore the starting point for a clear separation of powers and allocation of tasks.
Your report talks about leadership. I wish to call for more Commission initiatives based not so much on a minimum Council consensus but rather on what Europe needs. It talks about cooperation with the regions, yet in the Belgian Presidency's proposal for the convention the Commission of the Regions is not even a full member of that convention. Yet that is what we need. We talk about more information, but our actions are limited to giving the Member States more money for their information work, while the Member States do not give their own parliaments sufficient information about their decisions in the Council, and therefore exclude their citizens from European decision making.
By way of conclusion, I wish to call for proposals for sanctions in the case of misuse of EU funds, because that leads to distrust about the institutions on the part of the public. Wherever the EU is involved, that must be made evident, from the European institutions themselves to the smallest local council."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples