Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-05-Speech-2-036"
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"en.20020205.3.2-036"2
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"Mr President, I should like to say thank you to Mr von Wogau who has expertly prepared a very well-considered report on this difficult issue. It is an issue which has been waiting to be solved for a very long time, and I wish to be the first to welcome a solution. Our debate today shows the general dilemma we face between, on the one hand, wishing to be effective and, on the other hand, wishing to secure democratic control by means of the legislation we adopt, and it is this issue of, on the one hand, effectiveness, and, on the other hand, democratic control which is to be discussed in detail during the forthcoming Convention.
Those of us who want to see clear ground rules for the European institutions are often criticised for being nit picking and preoccupied with power. I disagree very strongly with that view. In my country, Denmark, we had a constitutional struggle that lasted from 1866 right up to 1901, in which parliamentarianism was finally adopted as the central democratic principle. It is the same process we are now in the throes of at European level. I am therefore also very pleased that, in the midst of this struggle, we in the EU are able to deliver a result, namely this practical agreement. To refer again to the situation in Denmark 130 years ago, the whole political system was just about paralysed during the Danish constitutional struggle. I am therefore very pleased about the President of the Commission’s, Mr Prodi’s, statement that the Commission approves the content of this report, which ought to receive considerable support from the European Parliament. However, it is extremely important that the Council not merely accept the content, but also the basic message, of this report. Quite a few Members of the Council basically believe that this whole matter is futile and is merely a case of Parliament’s making a nuisance of itself. That is not so. It is, in short, about exercising democratic control by means of our common European legislation."@en1
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