Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-17-Speech-1-043"
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"en.20011217.3.1-043"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Mr President of the Commission, in adopting the Laeken Declaration convening the Convention, the summit has made a decision of historical significance for the future of the European Union. It is particularly noteworthy that none of the numerous open political questions on the future of the European Union have been declared off-limits and that the Convention mandate can also be seen as marking the beginning of the process of developing a European constitution. A further reason why the convening of the Convention is a milestone in European politics is that it will consign the policy of secret diplomacy behind closed doors, of non-transparent decision-making and haggling in marathon night sittings – as happened most recently at the Nice Summit – to the past, hopefully once and for all!
In my opinion, it is impossible to overestimate the significance of the fact that a majority of the members of the Convention will be democratically-elected members of the national parliaments and the European Parliament, that it will meet in public and talk to all kinds of organisations from civil society, and that the candidate countries will be involved in drafting proposals for the most far-reaching reform in the European Union's history. This provides the opportunity for controversial issues to be discussed in a genuine pan-European context and thus for us to have a broad-based public debate on the future of the EU.
Since, however, a debate of this kind only comes to life if the pros and cons are discussed openly, I should like to refer once again to a position of this Parliament, namely our call for political plurality to be guaranteed in the composition of the Convention. The choice of those who will represent their countries, their national parliaments or the European Parliament is of particular importance in this context, and we must ensure at all costs that the Convention does not consist solely of representatives of the large European families of parties. Diversity of opinion must be delivered, because the European Union is actually at a crossroads and the proposals to be drawn up by the Convention must in their final form really reflect a European position on the future of Europe which is supported by all of us.
If the Convention is to be a success and ultimately if the European Union is to be viable in the future, it will, in my view, be crucial for us to succeed in making the European Union more democratic across the board and in strengthening the rights of individual people. It is my hope – indeed I am counting on this – that, through the commitment of all of its members and as an independent forum, the Convention will gather its own political momentum during the course of its consultations, so that the next Intergovernmental Conference will not be able simply to disregard the Convention's proposals."@en1
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