Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20020703.2.3-054"2
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"Mr President, I greatly appreciated the Danish Prime Minister’s words this morning, particularly what he had to say about the somewhat sensitive issue of enlargement, and it must be pointed out that he was in complete harmony with the President of the Commission on such a sensitive, key issue. This gives rise to at least two points. The first is the need to influence public opinion in our countries because, although it is certainly true that the Irish referendum will be crucial and decisive, it is equally true that we must ensure that the enlargement process is explained and understood in our countries, and this is a task which is the responsibility of every Member of the European Parliament.
The second point concerns the referendums which will be held in the candidate countries. Here, too, we must keep an eye on the process, to avoid a domino effect which could prove to be extremely negative, discouraging, of course, the populist influences emerging more or less everywhere, which paint European integration in an extremely negative light.
Another decisive point is without a doubt the work of the Convention. In 2003 and 2004, we will have to deal with an institutional overload, what with the elections, enlargement and the Intergovernmental Conference. I would like to say to the Danish Presidency that there are at least two subjects being discussed in the Convention which will be of some interest to Denmark as well, the first being the question of the role of linguistic minorities in Europe, which is still topical. This is an important subject for the Member States as well as the candidate countries. The other subject, which has already been mentioned in this House, is the question of the status within the European Union of the regions which have a legislative power recognised by the individual Constitutions. Here, too, the subject is of particular importance, for if we do not succeed in genuinely reconciling federalism and subsidiarity the misconceptions regarding the European machinery are likely to increase somewhat.
I would like to mention once again the admirable method employed by the Danish Presidency which enabled all the Parliamentary committees, including the committee of which I am chairman, to hold a series of meetings with the coordinators in Copenhagen. Here, at last, is the promise of a real, physical Council presence within the committees to debate the progress of the individual reports at the crucial moments before they are debated in the House. I feel that this innovation – and I am addressing Mr Haarder here – is extremely significant, for we are still, to some extent, suffering from a problem of relations with the Council which is having extremely negative effects.
As regards the subjects which concern the activity of my committee, in particular, I must highlight two points which involve Parliament as a whole and, of course, the group I belong to as well. The first issue concerns the added importance which will be assumed by the debate on cohesion policy and regional policy as of the coming months. I would point out that we will have the second interim report on cohesion in January and the third during 2003, which will be the decisive report. We can therefore say that the discussions taking place during this part-session are crucial.
It is equally important to pursue the work on the White Paper. In this regard, I would like to point out a matter with which the Danes will be faced that requires urgent resolution, and that is the question of the Austrian ecopoints system. This is an extremely sensitive political issue to which some solution must be found for, as we know, it is a burden on the enlargement process too, and it is evidence of the transalpine transport crisis."@en1
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