Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-17-Speech-1-036"
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"en.20011217.3.1-036"2
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"Madam President, my mother taught me that you should keep quiet if you have nothing worthwhile to say, but how are the elections of Mr Giscard d'Estaing, Mr Amato and Mr Dehaene as leaders of the Convention to be commented upon? We can of course commend the appointment of the three wise men with their splendid careers behind them as a good signal to the Chinese leaders as to how we promote women and young people in the European Union. What, however, do our own women and young people say about the fact that the future of the EU is now to be directed by those responsible for the majority of our laws’ now being adopted by officials and Ministers behind closed doors?
My group expects the leaders of the future to be given places in the Convention, which it also expects to be opened up to that 50 per cent of the electorate who voted ‘no’ in the referenda in France, Denmark and Ireland and who might have voted ‘no’ in other countries if the latter had had the courage to ask them. The critics of the EU, or Eurorealists, ought at least to have one place in every single national delegation, and I should like to thank Mr Verhofstadt for having supported this demand when SOS Democracy had a meeting with him. The Danish Prime Minister has already offered the Danish critics of the EU a place. The Convention should draft two texts: a constitution, as desired by the majority, and an agreement between independent nations which cooperate on cross-border matters that we cannot solve ourselves in our own countries’ parliaments.
The two proposals can therefore be subject to consultative referenda in all the Member States so that our politicians can see what people want before they call an official Intergovernmental Conference for the purpose of making changes to existing treaties. The two proposals should be prepared as completed drafts that can be adopted if desired. The Convention should therefore do some detailed work and employ the necessary experts to help with both the majority and minority approaches. There should also be ongoing debates on the two drafts in the national parliaments and at public meetings in the Member States. The successor to the Treaty of Amsterdam must not come as a surprise but as the result of a democratic process. The democratic process is at least as important as the content of the new treaty, in which it is not only the future of Mr Amato, Mr Dehaene and Mr Giscard d’Estaing that is now at stake, but that of all Europeans."@en1
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