Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-19-Speech-2-124"
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"en.20021119.2.2-124"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of my colleagues from the MPF delegation, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the representatives of the States that will soon be joining the Union, and in doing so, rejoining their natural family, the great European family from which they were separated by Communism. It is in this spirit that we shall adopt the Brok report. I would like to take this opportunity to express one regret and voice one hope.
First of all, I regret that it has taken so long to re-integrate Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, even though European integration is so clearly part of the values of our civilisation, of the Christian heritage that we share. Today, two other countries, Romania and Bulgaria, are not able to join Europe for some years. So, why not send them a signal now, why not allow them to join without waiting for the Treaty on European Union in the strict sense, which would not pose a problem since it is a flexible intergovernmental treaty rather than a treaty on the Community?
Secondly, we are also voicing a great hope. We shall construct the new Europe together. If things continue in the same way as at present, we could soon have a super-State that seeks to make everything centralised and uniform, which disregards national democracies. It is a real danger. Furthermore, this morning again, we heard from those who believe that, after enlargement, we will need a tighter central locking system in order to respond to the greater diversity. Like us, many of the soon-to-be new member states condemn this tendency. We would rather invent a new, diverse, more flexible Europe where there is more freedom and that is based on a respect for the national democracies. This morning, we heard a representative from Lithuania express concern about what would happen to Lithuania’s decision-making freedom when it would be represented by eight MEPs in a European Parliament with 732 members. This is a legitimate question that many countries, even the largest, should ask themselves. The only way to prevent democracy being diluted in the future, to avoid the impression of no longer controlling anything, is to increase the involvement of the national parliaments in the European decision-making process by giving them a genuine right to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to their countries taking part in this or that decision. In order to achieve this more free and more democratic Europe, Mr President, those who value the freedom of their countries, those who value their national democracy, and therefore those who value the true Europe should unite to defend their values."@en1
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