Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-172"
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"en.20040915.7.3-172"2
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"Mr President, I love the word 'democracy' because it puts the word 'people' in front of the word 'rule' – government by the people, of the people, for the people. I have heard the word 'democracy' repeated many times in Parliament and in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on which I sit.
However, the word is empty without the reality. I see little evidence of democracy in the strategies being designed to guarantee a positive outcome to the Constitution. In the committee we are told that it is our job to 'sell the Treaty', that we should restrict the debate in our home countries, that referendums should be scheduled to maximise the 'yes' vote. We are told that we must get the Council to supply funds for the pro-Constitution campaigns.
In committee draft questions were proposed to ask the Council to specify a strategy to ensure a positive outcome to the ratification procedure. I called for the question to be amended to ask the Council to ensure a fair and free ratification procedure. I am sorry to say that 'fair and free' lost.
I turn to the Council, Commission and Parliament: if we believe in democracy – especially in this process that you, Mr President, called the most important since the founding of the Union – I entreat you to do whatever you can to ensure a fair and free process, to ensure that resources are used to truly inform people, especially by distributing copies of the Constitution to all the electorate, and by ensuring that all sides of the debate are thoroughly aired. If we insist on democracy in this process – not just in word but in reality – then we will have a real outcome that every true democrat can accept."@en1
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