Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-24-Speech-3-067"
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"en.20030924.1.3-067"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, although Europe is becoming more democratic, more transparent, and closer to its people, it has certainly not finished with this Constitutional Treaty. We are a project, on which work must be in continual progress. The codecision procedure is becoming the rule and unanimity the valid exception. The citizens’ parliament’s legislative competence is being extended more than twice over. The way in which the national governments share responsibility for European decisions is being made more transparent, so it will be harder to make accusations, and the information given to the public will need to be more honest. Two of the constitution’s fundamental pillars of governance are the subsidiarity principle and the environmentally responsible market economy.
There is, of course, criticism. Aspects that have been criticised and cry out for amendment include the current proposal on the composition of the Commission, unanimous voting on taxes relevant to the internal market and on the Common Foreign Policy, as well as the absence of a common information campaign and of any requirement that the public be involved in the process of ratification. It is because Europe needs European awareness, an awareness that only information can create, and because we need our citizens to be informed and involved, that I advocate – even though the legal basis for it is not yet in place – a Europe-wide referendum, to take place at the same time as the elections to the European Parliament. It is because we have to inform, because we have to make citizens participants – and what could be more vital than to pro-actively tell the public about the European constitution, with its fundamental rights and civil liberties for citizens and to enable citizens to participate? I call on the members of the Intergovernmental Conference to hold a Europe-wide referendum to introduce the process of ratification, and I call upon my fellow Members of this House to endorse my statement to this effect."@en1
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