Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-055"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031008.7.3-055"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, a new opinion poll shows that, at present, only half the Danish population has heard of the draft European Constitution. Seventy-eight per cent want there still to be a Commissioner from each country. Only 12% are prepared to do away with such a representative. The Danish Government has therefore now at long last joined the chorus demanding a Commissioner from each country. I collected 123 signatures to that effect in the Convention. For all that, it does not form a part of the Convention’s draft, and this shows how the word ‘consensus’ can be misused when ordinary democratic procedures involving proposals, amendments and votes are abandoned. Better late than never, however. Will the Presidency of the Council now confirm that it is campaigning for a Commission with a representative for each country with full rights?
The next demand must therefore be that it should be the voters themselves or the national parliaments that choose their Commissioners. The elected representatives, who are answerable to their national parliaments, could report – in the Danish representative’s case, each Friday to the Europe Committee – on what they did the previous week and on what they intend to vote for the following week. They could inform the public and act as the elected representatives of the voters in the body that has a monopoly on tabling legislative proposals. They could be the voters’ representatives in Brussels instead of Brussels’ representatives in relation to the voters. Being elected by the national parliaments would be no obstacle to the Commissioners’ also being accountable, as managers of their portfolios, to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. On this point, the next Treaty should include a proper statement of the Commissioners’ responsibilities, corresponding to the ministerial responsibility familiar from civilised democracies.
A minister or a Commissioner must also be responsible for things about which he or she was unaware. We cannot have a Solbes, who does not accept responsibility because he did not know what was going on in Eurostat. He has managerial responsibility, whether or not he is to blame. He must accept responsibility and, in the process, ensure that the culprits are held to account. Before the Constitution is finally adopted at the Intergovernmental Conference, every subject in it should be discussed thoroughly by the people. How will the Presidency guarantee that the outcome does not come as a bad surprise for the majority of voters in our countries?"@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples