Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-13-Speech-1-059"
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"en.20030113.5.1-059"2
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"Mr President, this is an important issue, as Commissioner Barnier has pointed out, since the European Convention is going to hold a debate on this issue on 6 and 7 February. This report must therefore form the basis of that debate.
I would like to congratulate the Chairman, Mr Napolitano, on the good sense, which is the least common of the senses, of his proposal. Mr President, in this case you have done justice to your talent and reputation.
This resolution is clearly regionalist, because what we are asking the Convention is that it recognise the objective of territorial cohesion in Article 2; because we are asking for recognition of regional and local autonomy in Article 6; because we are asking for inclusion of linguistic diversity in Europe and the protection of minority languages in Article 151; because we are asking for recognition of cross-border cooperation in Article 158; because we are asking that the Committee of the Regions, within the context of subsidiarity, should be able to bring cases before the Court of Justice – in this regard we cooperate with the working group on subsidiarity which it is my honour to chair in the Convention; finally, because in paragraph 2 of Article 299 we ask for the situation of the outermost regions to be consolidated.
You may ask me, why has the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats voted by a majority against in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, if it is so positive? Well, I will tell you; because there are two issues which concern us and we believe that they have not been properly resolved in committee:
The first issue is Recital 2, into which an amendment was introduced empowering regional and local authorities to adapt the way in which they apply the legislation of the European Union, in order to take account, it says, of exceptional local circumstances and needs. I know that it then adds a paragraph saying 'while respecting the integrity of EU law', but I believe that, as it stands, this paragraph is detrimental to the common internal market and that led the Group of the European People’s Party, which has always defended the four freedoms of the internal market, to vote against.
We have therefore presented an amendment, No 21 – I believe we have reached an agreement with the Socialists – to bring together our Amendment No 21 with the Socialist No 5 in a compromise amendment, which I believe takes us in the right direction.
Finally, another issue which concerns us, Mr President, is the current wording of Article 8, which, along the same lines mentioned by Commissioner Barnier, grants all regional and local corporations with legislative powers the right to bring cases before the Court of Justice of the European Communities. We believe this is over the top, we believe this is not the way to build Europe, and we have therefore presented an amendment, No 24, which allows the regions, under the authority of the State, to defend its prerogatives before the Court in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.
We would ask the Members to examine these amendments, and if we reach an agreement on them, the Group of the European People’s Party, in accordance with the reasoning we have given, will be able to vote in favour of this extremely important report on which it is my honour to congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Napolitano."@en1
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