Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-28-Speech-3-014"
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"en.20040128.3.3-014"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, we need the Constitution, and we need it for twenty-five of us. All this talk about ‘core Europe’, centres of gravity and multiple speeds is no substitute for the constitution; on the contrary, it leads us astray, into a patchwork Europe of plots and counter-plots, and that we must avoid above all else.
Secondly, we need the constitution before the elections, as we have to send out a signal to the voters throughout Europe, who are increasingly impatient for this constitution to be adopted, for we know that nothing will be any easier in the autumn or next year; indeed, everything to do with the constitution will become more difficult.
Thirdly, we know perfectly well that we must not have another failed Intergovernmental Conference. It is vital that we succeed this time round, and I support the Irish presidency’s desire to clarify in advance whether we can achieve a positive outcome.
Let us, fourthly, stop putting question marks against what came out of Naples. We have traded arguments; we are where we did not always want to be, but this is where we must start from if we are to progress further. I know that most of the Member States are willing to accept Naples in terms of the consensus that the Italian presidency presented. Apart from that, there is one point on which I differ slightly from Mr Brok. Although it is certain that effectiveness is the benchmark, the yardstick of democratic legitimacy must also be applied to the decision-making processes in the European Union. I do think, though, that we will draw a bit closer together on this point in the course of the coming weeks.
We will support the Irish presidency with all our might, not only as regards the methods by which it endeavours to achieve consensus, but also in terms of its goal of presenting, in March, a sketch of potential outcomes rather than merely a timetable. Let me conclude with words of hope. After this Monday’s informal meeting there is a little light peeping over the horizon; may it become, under this presidency, a European dawn!"@en1
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