Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-04-Speech-3-038"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030604.2.3-038"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Mr President of the Commission, the European Council in Thessaloniki has a very demanding agenda. The future of the European Union is at stake – nothing more and nothing less. That is why the Convention has had to present a draft constitutional treaty for the European Union under enormous time pressure, a constitution that will prevent the European Union from becoming an impotent giant when it admits 10 new Member States.
This enlargement presents the European Union with an enormous historical opportunity, an opportunity that we must seize. However, we can only take full advantage of this opportunity if we try to take into account the principles of equal rights for all Member States, the balance between the institutions and the ability of the European Parliament to play a full part in the legislative process. There should not be any attempt to make the European Union artificially smaller, to create a core EU of the original six members with the remaining members outside this inner circle. A multi-speed Europe in which the influence of Member States varies would weaken the cohesion of the European Union. The criteria for the future treaty of the European Union should not be large or small nor old or new. This applies in particular to those accession countries where referendums are still to be held and where there is a very definite scepticism about a European superstructure.
Austria has therefore worked successfully for the interests of the smaller Member States – not that these countries needed us to act as their advocate. However, in politics conformity of interests is a valuable means of achieving legitimate demands. The hallmark of an EU constitutional treaty should therefore be that it does not unilaterally strengthen the intergovernmental approach at the cost of Community institutions like the Commission and Parliament, that it should not paralyse the EU by creating artificial functions that do not necessarily bring the EU any closer to its citizens and only eat up taxpayers' money, and that it should strengthen the EU's ability to act, both externally and internally. I therefore welcome the
agreement on the European Foreign Minister. Although the dual presidency concept has not been totally abandoned, we need to seek models which prevent paralysis of the EU and which at the same time grant every country a Commissioner's post and which strengthen the President of the Commission and provide for that President to be chosen by Parliament.
At least as important as the draft constitution is the fight against illegal immigration, which is very closely linked with the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice. With 500 000 illegal immigrants entering the EU every year, we need to find ways of tackling this real problem, in other words we need to create means of offering support to refugees on the ground and to provide for rapid decision making in the asylum process. Asylum policy must be based on the Geneva Convention and on common minimum standards."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples