Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-27-Speech-3-072"
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"en.20041027.5.3-072"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, many of us have suffered from injustice during our lives, and for people of good faith that is a reason to make every effort so that others should not suffer discrimination and abuse. Before making any decision, Martin Luther King used to ask himself: ‘Is it right?’ I believe it is right that every political person should stand up for his or her own convictions and fight to defend the ideas of others for the sake of the common good. Politics, in fact, is about making laws in the overall interests of today’s and tomorrow’s citizens.
Those who do not express their reasoned opinions are acting in the interests of their parties but not in the interests of Parliament, which represents all voters and not just those who voted for us personally. We should therefore have preferred to vote today so as to carry out our mutual responsibilities. Nevertheless, we accept Mr Barroso’s decision in the hope that further time for calm reflection will provide an opportunity for the Council, which is due to meet in Rome shortly for the signing of the Constitutional Treaty, to reach a considered understanding with Parliament and the Commission.
We renew our trust in Mr Barroso in the certainty that his choices and the appointments made by the governments will comply with the people’s call for a transparent Commission that respects the principle of subsidiarity and is able to uphold everyone’s rights, within the context of the overall interests of society from a European viewpoint, but also in the interests of the rest of the world.
We call on Parliament, in any case, to provide all the committees with specific rules in common, so that future hearings will all follow the same procedures. The different procedures used to date have not, in fact, guaranteed either impartial methods or respect for true democracy.
In response to the statement by the Council representative, we do not consider that the Prodi Commission can remain in office for as long as necessary. The Prodi Commission must remain in office for ordinary administration until the next plenary part-session of Parliament in Strasbourg. On that date, Mr Barroso must come before this House again with the complete list of Commissioners. Otherwise we would have a poor image of this Europe, which I do not think anybody wants.
Over the past fifteen years in this House, I have always remembered that the secular spirit of Parliament can only be preserved so long as this secularity is not transformed into a new kind of fundamentalism, which, while supporting the protection of some groups, breaches the rights of others. Two wrongs never make a right but create new oppressions and divisions in society.
Anyone who tries to protect differences in culture or sexual orientation by discriminating against the culture or religious beliefs of others is not acting for the common good but perpetrating new discrimination. Intellectual narrow-mindedness makes human beings petty and arrogant. Respect for others, on the other hand, enables them to formulate rules that ensure peaceful coexistence for all.
Mr Barroso, the Commission must listen to Parliament but reject the attempts by some to blackmail you. The Commission does not need guardians along its way, but loyal and intellectually honest partners in dialogue."@en1
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