Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-22-Speech-4-005"
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"en.20040722.1.4-005"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in this legislative period, our Parliament has to take on a new role, one that is also prefigured in the draft of the constitutional treaty. It is generally said that this treaty will give the House new rights; on closer examination, it appears that this House gains a role for itself only when it can rely on an absolute majority of its Members in doing its job. That is particularly the case when it is engaged in making laws. Only if Parliament acts with an absolute majority does it play its part in the triangle of power formed by it, the Commission and the Council. Such, it is becoming apparent, is the constitutional reality in this House, and there are political conclusions to which we must come as a result.
In the past, it was all too often the case that Parliament was ground down between the Council and the Commission, for lack of any solid majority, and because either the Council or the Commission could play Parliament off against the other. For that reason, we are convinced that we in this House must, from now on, make the effort to take up a position and also accept our responsibilities. That presupposes political cooperation in this House. Looking at the relative strengths of our political groups, it is inevitable that even the two big ones will have to consider whether they can cooperate with each other, and, if so, in which areas. The fact is that, numerically speaking, that is the only way in which a majority in this House will come into being, and that is why we are presented with the unaccustomed sight of parties that, in their domestic, indigenous, national reality are as a rule the complete natural antithesis of each other – Socialists on the one hand, Christian Democrats and Conservatives on the other – attempting in this House to work together from time to time, which, in many cases, evokes misgivings back home.
Here, though, politically speaking, the natural order of things is different. I do not think we should allow the rules whereby we come to decisions to be subject to merely national considerations. We should possess sufficient self-confidence to make it clear that we have ways of coming to policy decisions that differ from the national, indigenous realities of our nation states. For that reason, we urge the need to attempt to establish solid majorities, for only then will Parliament, along with the Commission and the Council, be able to play a part in the triangle of power."@en1
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