Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-18-Speech-3-119"
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"en.20030618.9.3-119"2
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"Mr President, I represent as you say, a composite group in this, the Group of the Greens and the European Free Alliance, and I would like to thank personally Jo Leinen very much for his colleaguely courtesy and goodwill in carrying out this work. Undoubtedly, unlike Mr Ribeiro e Castro, I think that what has been produced is a genuine attempt at a compromise and one which I believe a majority of my Group will be happy to accept, although other colleagues who will speak in the debate will draw attention to particular points of concern.
From the point of view of the European Free Alliance which I particularly represent here, there are, however, genuine concerns about the way in which the criteria are chosen: the way in which one specifies what counts. Currently in this Parliament, the European Free Alliance represents a wide range of what we would think of as distinct countries within the European Union – Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Flanders, Galicia, Scotland and Wales, to take them in alphabetical order in the English language – but of course, from the point of view of a criterion based upon States, that is only three States.
When I look at the new flags beautifully adorning the podium there, I see that there are flags of many countries which are present or future Member States and which are actually, in terms of either territory or population or both, considerably smaller than the countries I have mentioned. So the kind of movement in thought – and it is a European movement in thought – which the European Free Alliance represents is actively discriminated against by a criterion specified simply in terms of a proportion of the total number of Member States. That really is something that needs to be reflected upon.
A Parliament of this kind and a Union of this kind must have a very particular regard for the interests of minorities and for fairness to minorities and the rights of smaller groups. I know that the compromise has aimed to move in our direction and I appreciate that very much, but the fact of the matter is that there is still a serious difficulty from the point of view of this genuine European tide of opinion.
The European Free Alliance has been recognised for a long time as one of the original Europe-wide political families, and yet we will stand on the margins of being excluded and de-recognised under these proposals. I am afraid we cannot support them in this form."@en1
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