Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-17-Speech-1-059"
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"en.20011217.3.1-059"2
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"I would also like to say to the President that it was not desire which was lacking when it came to responding immediately to the questions posed. My colleagues have often said to me, ‘no, it is not a question you can ask’. I would say, ‘why?’ ‘Because the answer is implied in the question’. Nevertheless, Mrs Thyssen and all the other Members who have spoken can rest assured that I am going to do my best in the Intergovernmental Conference, in the regular contacts I will have with the various members of the praesidium and the Convention, to help to find the answers to the questions posed in the declaration.
With regard to the membership of the praesidium, there has been mention of the absence of women. I completely agree and I propose that three men and nine women now be designated by the national parliaments and the European Parliament. All is not lost yet, since only three of the twelve places have been allocated. I also truly hope that the European Parliament, the national parliaments and the various representatives will be able to do this.
I would like to end by saying something about the relationship between the European Parliament and the national parliaments. I believe that what is very important is that a praesidium has been created, that that praesidium consists of twelve people and that amongst those twelve people, two will be representatives of the European Parliament. The same number will represent the national parliaments. I believe that these two people are going to have to play an important role, because it will be this group of twelve which prepares things, which prepares the agendas. Not all the decisions can be taken by a Convention of 113 people. It must be prepared. The praesidium is going to play a dominating role in this respect and in that praesidium there will naturally be two representatives of the European Parliament.
Finally, I would like to stress that I believe it is very important that for the first time there will also be representation in the Convention from the so-called constitutional regions, but the more exact term is ‘regions with legislative powers’. I am the Prime Minister of a country with a federal structure. It is the same in Germany, in Austria and in other countries. Little by little, many other countries are beginning to adopt federalism within their institutional system. And it is working well, because federalism is the only way we have to allow different communities, different cultures and populations who speak different languages to live together, without giving rise to what happens in other parts of the world, where there is conflict. I would therefore like to stress that we should not use the word ‘federalism’ in a negative sense. I sometimes hear people say that federalism spells disaster. Quite the opposite. Throughout the world, federalism demonstrates that it is the only way for communities to live together without conflict, without turning to violence, as is the case in many parts of the world.
And it is for that reason that I personally believe it is important and an enormous step forward that the regions with legislative powers can be represented. I have achieved this because I have also been helped by the President of the Committee of the Regions. I do not need to tell you that around the Council table there were certain people who found it difficult to include the words ‘regions with legislative powers’ in the declaration and difficult to recognise, as the European Council, that those regions may have a place and a say. It has finally been accepted and that is thanks to the President of the Committee of the Regions, Mr Chabert, whom I had asked to send me a letter. The letter which he had sent me said: the Committee of the Regions must be represented and we must demand that the different members of the Committee of the Regions be represented. The regions and cities, but also the regions with administrative powers. I have therefore been able to use the authority of the Committee of the Regions to include these regions in the text for the first time. I wanted to stress this here this afternoon, since I feel that they have an important role to play. There will be discussion of the distribution of competences, the new instruments, institutions and the future European constitution. I personally believe that we must do this together, excluding nobody, and allowing every section of our European Union to express its view."@en1
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