Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-18-Speech-3-128"
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"en.20030618.9.3-128"2
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"Mr President, much as I respect Mr Leinen, I have rarely seen such a lousy draft as the one about European political parties. Moreover, it is not by chance that this debate is taking place at 10 p.m. and in secret. EUR 8 million are being shared out among us and it is clearly being done with the utmost discretion. Sharing among us is of course a manner of speaking. There are about 20 Members present and at least six or seven of those 20 Members are not destined to get any. It is not clear why. We are all Members of the European Parliament, we have all been elected, but we are not worthy of this party funding. Mr Karas has presented a democratic argument in favour of this great European project and it is a pity that the party he belongs to in his country will not get that money. Perhaps you know that, Mr Karas. Is that democracy? They are elected representatives and they are denied the means of survival. But they exist, Mr Karas, they are even your allies at Austrian level, but at European level they do not exist, they have no right to funding. This Leinen report and the consequences that flow from it are quite bizarre. What is more, we are discussing it in secret.
That being the case, my dear Mr Onesta, where are these European political parties? Do you know them? Can anyone join one of these European political parties we are talking about? In my country, I can join my national parties, you can join your national parties, the French Greens. We can join the trans-national radical party, and some Members have done so, but we cannot join these so-called European political parties that are going to receive a pile of cash for what are really meetings of amalgamations of European political parties. We saw clearly enough, during the Gulf crisis, for example, how these European political parties behaved. The Group of the Party of European Socialists, I take my hat off to you! Bravo for your united stance on the Gulf! The same goes for the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats. Is there a single activist in these parties?
That is still all very unsound, ladies and gentlemen. I do not mind a bit of an effort being made to bail out the confederations of parties, but in the light of the European ideal it is not very fair, not very worthy. Incidentally, together with other colleagues from parties which – for reasons unknown – will not be getting any money, even though they are represented in Parliament, defend ideas here, are elected by millions of people, we intend bringing an action before the Court of Justice and we will see who wins!
I will end with a final word to Mr Leinen. You were very passionate in insisting that it should be the Commission that manages this money, that a directorate general should look after the parties’ statute. The Council said
and it seems you have tabled an amendment with the result that we no longer know who is going to give the money to the European political parties you are so fond of. It is not Parliament and it is not the Commission. Your compromise amendment is somewhat bizarre. I wonder who will give the money? Perhaps the Court of Justice when we bring our action and perhaps we will also claim damages. I am joking when I say that, but I also want you to know that the battle is not over. I think this report is seriously flawed and does merit recourse to the Court of Justice, and we will see then whether we are right to say, regardless of the contents, that it is quite wrong to propose financing two thirds or three quarters of this Chamber while disregarding the other third or quarter."@en1
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