Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-11-17-Speech-3-012"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20041117.3.3-012"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, just a very brief word to Mr Schulz: please bring the statement you have just made to the attention of the German Minister for the Interior. That would seem to be urgently needed.
On 4 and 5 November this year, the European Council laid down its priorities for the further development of the area of freedom, security and justice. It is probable that these developments will do more to shape the EU’s character than any previous joint initiative, for it is on the realisation of this Union governed by the rule of law that a common European community will be founded. The character of our society will be determined not only by to what extent the European Union wants our 450 million citizens to be protected against the dangers of terrorism, among other things, or the degree to which it wants judicial cooperation to be organised in future practice, but also by joint action in the areas of asylum, immigration and integration. We must not forget that the foundations we will be laying down over the coming five years will determine not only the futures of 450 million people, but also those of their children and grandchildren.
I would just like to take this opportunity not merely to remind you, but also perhaps to make you again aware, of the responsibility we all took on when we made the decision to be policymakers in this House. We shape societies and fashion their futures; it is, alas, only in retrospect that we will learn whether our efforts are crowned with success. We will then, however, have to answer our children’s questions, as our parents and grandparents had to answer our own, and I will be able to tell them that I did indeed prevent freedom being sacrificed to security, that I did indeed help to keep this great society open, tolerant and free, a society that would never tolerate intolerance, that I did indeed offer those persecuted in foreign lands the opportunity to seek safety in this Europe of ours, and gave that same opportunity to those who wanted to live and work here.
And when my children ask me how I achieved that, I hope I will be able to tell them how we, the citizens’ directly elected representatives, would not stand for the interior ministers of a few countries joining together in what they called ‘G5’ and taking essential decisions without reference to Parliament. We have seen how important it is to integrate the foreigners living in Europe, in a way which respects them and likewise demands that they respect it. I will tell them how we overcame those who sought to burn a free society to the ground, how we, in fighting terrorism, always took account of the need to preserve citizens’ rights and freedoms. Such measures as biometric data in identity documents are to be assessed most stringently by reference to their necessity and proportionality. I will tell them how we stamped out every form of traffic in human beings, which was slavery in a modern guise, combating it at every level and making it possible for people to enter Europe legally, and how we discharged our obligations to those who seek asylum, without making it easy for ourselves by shifting our responsibility to states beyond our borders and without our laws. I will tell them that we did not merely create empty institutions, but such bodies as the European Human Rights Agency, endowed with funding and a mandate.
The Hague Programme is a beginning; it is certainly not an end. Before we make irreversible changes to our society, we must think, discuss and argue, and do it time and time again. For it is the protection of human and civil rights, of freedom and security, that underpins this Europe of ours, which we must defend – even, and something particularly, within its own institutions."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples