Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-22-Speech-4-067"
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"en.20040722.4.4-067"2
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"Mr President, I am pleased to be able to speak this morning on behalf of this new Independence and Democracy Group, the fastest growing group in the European Parliament, which I believe reflects public opinion across the European continent.
Let us remember what we are talking about here. We are talking about a European Commission and a President of the European Commission. I would suggest that the super-bureaucrat, Jean Monnet, is resting very easily in his grave because the Commission model that he wanted is here. If we have the Constitution, it is here to stay. You see, Mr Monnet hated parliamentary democracy; he found it inconvenient; it got in the way of an administrator's plan for the next five, ten or fifteen years and he wanted to have a strong European Commission. What we have today is a European Union that is effectively ruled by unelected bureaucrats based in Brussels, issuing directives and regulations with which this House can do nothing other than tamper.
Just look at the Commission! It has become a rest home for failed domestic politicians. When people have to resign from cabinet or if, like Chris Patten, they lose their seat in an election, they are packed off for five or ten years at the European Commission – a Commission that has proved itself to be unreformable. Do you remember that they all resigned in disgrace in 1999? We were told that it was all going to change, it was all going to be made better. Mr Prodi took over for five years, with Mr Kinnock at his side, and what did we see? We saw the Eurostat scandal. Have we really seen an increase in transparency? The answer is 'no', and so bureaucratic and bad is it that now we have over 3 000 working groups and committees within this bureaucratic monster.
Mr Barroso came to meet our group – which was quite brave of him in many ways. He is politically skilled, he is a good operator and a good communicator. He is certainly much better at all of those things than Mr Prodi was. Mark you, that would not be very difficult, would it? But he believes in a political Europe. He supports the European Constitution: a constitution that is bad for democracy; a constitution that establishes this place as a new legal entity; a constitution whose withdrawal terms are so unacceptable as to make the EU a prison of nations.
My group will overwhelmingly vote against Mr Barroso and we urge anybody in this House that wants to stop the European Constitution to use this opportunity today to send a message."@en1
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