Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-025"
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"en.20011024.1.3-025"2
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"President of the Commission, I am speaking on behalf of the European radical Members of the Bonino List. We welcome the European government’s support of the United States institutions, although we hope that they will manage to continue to resist the anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist instincts which are so powerful within the political groupings in Europe. However, we would criticise the delays in presenting a humanitarian aid plan and its lack of practical content in the face of a potential humanitarian disaster. On a more general note, it is not right to focus on the difficult nature of the European Union’s political role without addressing the issue of the democratic nature of the institutions themselves. We have talked about how important it is for the Fifteen to act in unity and with all speed and to assume a common position. In our opinion, unity between the Fifteen is valuable when it is achieved through public – and therefore accountable, democratic – debate. It is of much less value when it is reached in closed meetings held in secret meeting rooms which are inaccessible to democratic scrutiny.
An example of this is cooperation in justice and home affairs. We are all in favour of the European area of justice and police cooperation, but these are extremely sensitive areas which involve fundamental rights and freedoms and the 15 penal codes of our Member States. It is unacceptable for any democratic debate to be dispensed with, either in the national parliaments or the European Parliament, on issues relating to rights guaranteed by constitutions, in the name of the need for rapid action. That is the real obstacle: the real obstacle is the democratic nature of the European Union! We would make this clear, in particular, to Mr Schröder and Mr Chirac, who publicly lamented the lack of rapid action. Be careful: fundamental rights and freedoms are involved! The democratic nature of the institutions of the European Union is at stake."@en1
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