Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-078"
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"en.20040914.7.2-078"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, now that a new Commission is taking office, it would be appropriate to wish it every success. Unfortunately, President Barroso’s Commission has not even made a start and there are already evident signs of disharmony in its ranks. Various Commissioners have put all their differences of opinion on display in the media. Accordingly, the new Italian Commissioner for Justice was immediately met with disapproving comments when he mooted, with regard to asylum policy, the idea that the time had come to take the bull by the horns and set up reception camps for refugees on the Union’s external borders. Anyone who is aware of the harrowing asylum issues in Italy, with the constant stream of boat refugees on the island of Lampedusa, realises that the Commissioner did not float these proposals light-heartedly.
Nevertheless, the new Belgian Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, who already has some experience when it comes to insulting the Italians, considered it necessary to dissociate himself from his colleague straightaway. In fact, it is this self-same Louis Michel who openly declared in the Belgian media that he intends to continue to combine his job as European Commissioner with active political membership of his own party in Belgium, where he claims he would like to return to active campaigning as an ordinary member. In this, he does not exactly show a great deal of respect for his new office. Turkey’s accession seems to be another contentious issue. Depending on the political sensitivities of the Member States from which they come, some Commissioners are in favour, and others against. There is no hope of unanimity in this area either. However, with regard to this tricky issue, I should like to urge the new Commission at this point in time to take into consideration the reluctance on the part of the majority of the European population to allow an Islamic and non-European country to join the European Union. If not, this Commission is at risk of losing its democratic legitimacy before it has properly started."@en1
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