Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-026"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20011024.1.3-026"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, as someone who was born and bred in Ghent, I should first of all like to express my satisfaction at the peaceful process of the demonstrations during the European Council in Ghent. What went wrong in Gothenburg and Genoa did not in Ghent. That is undoubtedly linked to the changes since 11 September, but also to the sound preparation, the sensible approach by the police and certainly also to the open dialogue that has led to a different atmosphere.
As Mr Verhofstadt has already underlined, the original intention of this informal summit was to prepare for the Laeken Declaration. The Fifteen defined the parameters and the timeframe for the convention. As the European Parliament, we should be able to recognise that this was a true
. Six months ago, this would have been absolutely unthinkable.
Another positive development is the fact that the Union has taken a unanimous and firm stand in the fight against terrorism, has emphatically confirmed its solidarity with the US, but at the same time, has highlighted its own political role. Strictly speaking, Ghent has thus fulfilled the expectations. But the way in which European unanimity was brought about has once again exposed the cracks in the European edifice.
Ghent has also painfully accentuated the fact that Nice’s two areas of tension, namely that between the large and small countries, and that between the intergovernmental and community approach, is still heavily mortgaging the European Union’s future. This applies first and foremost to the CFSP. The French President is right, strictly speaking, when he states that the European Union is not authorised to deal with military matters. However, the question is whether we are prepared at all to change this.
The three largest Member States should realise that they cannot continue to be only half-committed to the cause. This ambiguity cannot remain concealed behind fine sounding final declarations in which attempts are made to keep up appearances of European unanimity.
Let us hope that 11 September and the need to reform the institutions prior to enlargement will encourage Member State governments to look beyond their own national policies and return to the roots of the European Union, namely to promote peace and security in Europe and in the world by intense cooperation between the Fifteen, rather than just three, Member States."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples