Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-15-Speech-4-115"

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"Mr President, I should like to thank the Commissioner for her reply, which at least has the merit of being clear, and which resembles that of a child caught with its fingers in the jam pot. It is clear, as you have just said, that you have found an escape route via the Green Paper on services of general interest. Nevertheless, the intention was, and still is, to break away, if possible, from Parliament and the Member States, in order to impose a directive which actually comes down to dismantling the postal service. We must learn to call a spade a spade. I should like to echo what Mr Posselt said, though his argument was somewhat paradoxical. He is in favour of liberalisation, but deplores the fact that post offices are being closed down and that the public postal service is deteriorating. Yet this is inevitable. It is clear that a public service cannot be profitable, particularly when it has to ensure an equal service in highly populated areas and in regions which are much more sparsely populated. If we divide up the public service and want to turn it into a centre of profit, that will mean the end of the public postal service, the end of any postal presence throughout the territory, and the end of the social nature of this sector. That is why – and I would ask you, Commissioner, to pass on this message to Messrs Monti and Bolkestein – we are intransigent. We are intransigent in our support for the democratic principle which you are seeking to circumvent and to flout, by changing the legal basis and by trying to avoid Parliament. I know that democracy is a dreadful bore for all executives, but it is, nonetheless, a proof of civilisation. We will naturally be prepared to go much further if the Commission persists in its attempt and in its desire to pursue its liberal offensive by breaking away from the people and their representatives. I can tell you this, Commissioner, we would not hesitate to contest the legal basis, before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, if Mr Bolkestein persists in this disastrous project, which is no surprise to us, coming as it does from him."@en1

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