Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-06-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20020206.2.3-013"2
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"Mr President, on a lighthearted note may I firstly say that I am extremely pleased to be here to witness the discovery of the feminine side of your personality, revealed to us this morning. Let me also assure colleagues that there is a tougher side to the personality of the President, as I have seen in another House in another place.
Finally, I support and commend your approach towards promoting external affairs. Might I ask you to look at the role of the parliamentary delegations in this particular area? Are we doing Parliament justice? Are we doing justice to anyone when we meet a delegation from India, say, or China once a year for one-and-a-half or two days? Is that promoting foreign relations? No, not in any shape or form. Why are we not, for instance, opening up discussions and debate with Iran at the present time? If those advocating change within the Iranian regime need help and support through debates and discussions with people like us, why are not we giving them that? Is it not about time we became masters of our own policy, our own approach, our own attitude in foreign affairs?
Mr President, you have made a great start. I warmly support you. I wish you well and I will be with you right along the way.
I warmly welcome the statement made by the President to us here this morning. I am genuinely pleased with the response to it by the people who have already spoken. It augurs well for the change that we know must take place – a change that we have been hesitant to face up to for quite a considerable period of time. I would like to go on record as saying that this, in my view, is the first serious attempt in a long time to take up the challenge of the need for change. We often see change as something that is always desirable but that can wait until tomorrow. Now, with Pat Cox as our President, we must confront it from day one. I welcome that. There is an obligation on each and every one of us to support that change.
My Group in particular welcomes the changes that you have outlined in your statement. They will make this Parliament more meaningful. They will give it the role that Parliament must, and should, have and which we know it has not got. They will give us the type of debate that will mean we can put away all the documents we read diligently and carefully on technical matters that we should not be debating at all. Let us debate the political issues.
Mr Barón Crespo mentioned the good debate we had yesterday with the High Representative, Javier Solana. It was a good and open debate, but we should have had more debates like that one. It should not just be a privilege for us to have Mr Solana present; perhaps he should be here on a more regular basis. He is accountable to this Parliament – we should not overlook that. That is important too. I was delighted that Commissioner Patten was here yesterday because his is a role that we must respect and support as well.
I should like to thank the Commission and the Spanish presidency for being here at this most important debate here today. They too have a role. I have consistently supported the view that the Commission's best friend is the European Parliament. Parliament will support the Commission and make sure it is not sidelined by one or two of the larger Member States wishing to do so for any particular reason. I also know that the Commission is the best friend of the smaller Member States within the European Union, which can count on protection when they need it.
As regards the representatives of the Spanish presidency, it is right and proper that they are here today and I thank them for coming. Last November they came and met the political leaders of the groups in this Parliament and held open consultations with them on the agenda that they proposed to put forward during their presidency. This was a worthwhile initiative that we welcome, value and appreciate. It is not so long ago that the outgoing presidency refused to come to this Parliament to report on its activities because it wanted to go immediately afterwards. It did not want to answer questions. We should not accept that.
Much reform is required within this House. We will support that reform. I welcome what Mr Cox has said on the different matters he mentioned. He mentioned the need for the statute. There is full support for the statute and I welcome the fact that the consultation is going to take place from the bottom up, involving everybody in a decent, fair, upright, open and democratic fashion. This will contrast with the past, when Mr Rothley was working on his own and efforts were made just to get a deal done to give a presidency something to their credit at the end of the day. That was not good enough then. It will not be good enough now. We have all involved ourselves in this debate and something worthwhile will come from it.
As regards the workings of the Convention, I very much welcome the suggestions that have been made here today. I would add, though perhaps not with 100% conviction, that the meeting that is taking place today between Mr Giscard d'Estaing and the heads of the political groups should not have been confined to the heads of the political groups. Consideration should perhaps have been given to having that meeting in this House to let all Members see what is going on. We have urged Mr Giscard d'Estaing not to have his little meetings behind closed doors. We have called for the rhythm of the Convention to be dictated from the floor and to involve the Members from the different states in this House, yet we assist Mr Giscard d'Estaing by having a private, cosy little lunch at which half a dozen people will be present. Think again, Mr President, when these matters come up for debate and discussion.
As regards enlargement, I very much welcome and support your initiative to invite representatives from the parliaments of the applicant states. That is good, right and proper. Let us have debate and discussion. One small word of caution: let us not overplay our role and move into an area where we might be overlapping the negotiating mandate of the Commission. We have to be careful and I would trust your experience and judgement in that. I speak from my own limited experience in that area, which I shall relate at another time and in another place."@en1
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