Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-24-Speech-3-038"
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"en.20030924.1.3-038"2
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"Mr President, the Intergovernmental Conference that will open in Rome on 4 October represents an extraordinary opportunity for the whole of the European Union, for almost 500 million citizens that are, at last, calling for institutions that are more in touch with the people than they have been to date. It would be an extremely serious political error to allow the IGC to fail and not to give Europe its first Constitution.
I am an optimist and I am personally convinced that no one will want to be responsible for undoing the work of the Convention and for wiping out the hope of having a Europe that is politically strong and independent at last, a Europe that can play the part of the power required to balance an international situation dominated today by the United States, with the prospect of an increase in China’s power in the future. Let us be clear: we believe in a more influential Europe which is independent from the United States but, at the same time, a friend and ally of a country and a people that have also made a decisive contribution to ensuring freedom and democracy in our continent.
I share the opinion of the Italian Presidency and those who believe that the structure adopted by the Convention cannot be radically changed. Perfection is the enemy of good: pursuing unfeasible projects would mean not achieving the goal towards which we are all striving. It would be very serious, as you have said here, Mr Antonione, to accept substantial compromises and I welcome this opportunity – as a Member of the European Parliament – to thank the Italian Presidency for its endeavours to ensure that this House is represented in the Intergovernmental Conference. I therefore endorse the line taken in the report by Mr Gil-Robles Gil-Delgrado and Mr Tsatsos regarding the need for the European Parliament to play an important role, and I hope that other countries will follow the advice of the Italian Presidency and rally round to support the commitment taken in this House by President Berlusconi.
Some corrections will, of course, have to be made to the text adopted by the Convention, such as, for example, an increase in the number of areas where decisions can be made by qualified majority voting and the need to reach agreement on the number and role of Commissioners. Then, it would be a serious historical error, Mr President, to exclude any reference to Europe’s Judaeo-Christian roots. I am not saying that we should renounce the secular nature of the institutions; on the contrary, we would be reinforcing this inalienable characteristic, remembering the command given in the gospels to ‘give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God’s’.
It is appropriate here to recall the words of many laymen – I am thinking here of the philosopher, Norberto Bobbio, the philosopher, Benedetto Croce – who insisted on the role and the importance of religions in the history and growth of Europe. How can we fail to mention a great painter such as Marc Chagall, a European painter, Jewish, who also devoted himself to depicting the spirituality of Europeans, and who confirmed that painters have dipped their brushes into that colourful alphabet of hope that are the Sacred Scriptures. Turning now to those who are forming ranks to oppose this choice, I would also like to recall the words of Chancellor Schroeder, who stated in the
that he was not against inserting the reference to Judaeo-Christian roots into the Constitutional Treaty.
A Europe that wants to explore new horizons, called upon to bring together new citizens of different religions, really cannot afford to erase its own roots. Mr President, we cannot explore new horizons if we do not know where we came from."@en1
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