Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-108"
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"en.20011024.5.3-108"2
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"Mr President, just as the Commission and we in Parliament change our methods of working, the former through its White Paper, the Council too must of course change its own methods of working, both in the light of enlargement and because, as many people point out, its present methods do not work so well at present. Mr Poos has much long-standing experience of how the Council operates. I hope that the Council will take his views on board. I assume that this issue will come up at the convention and that, as Mr Verhofstadt said this morning, there will be no taboos.
Precisely what shape is to be taken by the Council’s work is not of course something we Liberals have any reason for taking a view on, because it is not our task to regulate these matters. There are nonetheless certain issues in which we think we can become involved. Transparency is one such issue. For us, transparency in the EU’s work is important when it comes to all the institutions. It is a key to winning back people’s confidence in the European project. At present, the Council meets behind closed doors and legislates for millions upon millions of Europeans. That is not acceptable. Everyone talks about this, and everyone criticises it. Very minor reforms take place, but these are not enough. The legislation must be a matter for public debate. A separate department must be formed within the Council in which the ministers meet entirely openly and in public in order to legislate. There must, moreover, be proper Minutes issued afterwards. The members of this legislative Council must of course be politicians, not officials, with clear mandates from their respective governments.
Another issue which worries us rather, and which Mr Poos also addressed, is that of all the overhyped ‘mini-summits’ which assume an enormous amount of importance. A great many decisions are made during these meetings of rather doubtful status. We hope that less emphasis will be placed on these meetings and that they will instead be transformed into working meetings.
There is an increased tendency in the Council – not so much in the country that at present holds the Presidency, but in many others, especially Sweden – towards intergovernmental activity and a desire to strengthen the Council at Parliament’s and the Commission’s expense. We view this development with great concern, because more intergovernmental activity and more decisions behind closed doors scarcely lead to a more democratic EU."@en1
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