Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-21-Speech-3-014"
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"en.20040721.1.3-014"2
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"Thank you to the Irish Presidency for its splendid technical implementation of what is the largest planned loss of democracy to date. Never before have Europeans in one go faced having to lose so much power. Each time, power is shifted from the electorate to other people. Nowhere will the electorate now have had their say in drafting the Constitution. The right to amend the Constitution is to be shifted from the electorate to the prime ministers who, in future, will be able to amend the Constitution themselves. The process is described in terms of
a word that we cannot translate into Danish but whose content is conveyed by the term
.
The right to be given the last word is to be stolen from the electorate. With the Constitution, a group of Heads of State or Government will obtain the right to give the EU more power without ever having to consult the electorate again. In a long list of new areas, the right to amend the laws following subsequent elections will pass from the electorate to a majority of non-elected Commissioners and a qualified majority of officials and ministers behind closed doors in secret working parties and councils. The right to elect the executive and hold them responsible is to disappear in favour of a top-down bureaucracy without democratic control, administrative law and ministerial responsibility.
The right to regret the outcome of an election and take a different decision is to be taken away from the electorate, which will only be able to get its decisions changed with the approval of the Commission in Brussels – the same Commission in which we, as voters, are to lose the right to have our own national Commissioners. Without any participation by our countries, a majority of the Commission will be able to adopt a Commission law that takes precedence over each country’s constitution, even if there has not been a single person from that country present.
In the course of a long and bloody history, the Irish have fought for their own democracy. During its Presidency, Ireland has paved the way for having to lose that right again. If we are to limit democracy, let it at least be done democratically. The electorate is entitled to a vote. Put the Constitution to the vote in all the countries, preferably on the same day.
In this Parliament, we have created a group for independence and democracy that calls upon the electorate to reject the proposed Constitution. We should like to invite opponents of the Constitution to set up a common forum to help organise the resistance. Please note that we are to meet during the next sitting, on Tuesday at 1 p.m. after the vote, if you wish to help defend the right to our democracy against the new draft Constitution."@en1
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