Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-11-18-Speech-4-041"
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"en.20041118.6.4-041"2
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"Mr President, Mr Barroso, in a few moments your Commission will be sworn in. Yet we believe that this is an illusory success, as it is the product of one of these top-level schemes that give rise to the crises they are intended to resolve. The Commission is now as good as in place, but it has had an easy start compared with what is to come. Five months ago, a clear majority of European citizens showed their deep disaffection with the European institutions, accusing us of building a Europe in which they felt increasingly lost. Since your appointment, Mr Barroso, have you sent any kind of message to these citizens which is likely to imbue European integration with renewed meaning?
Firstly, you have achieved celebrity by surreptitiously attempting to give the Commission a slant which in other climes would pass for being neo-conservative, in assigning the highly symbolic portfolio of freedom, security and justice to a proponent of an obscurantist and old-fashioned mode of thinking. This caused a general outcry in many sectors of the European public, an outcry you had not anticipated, and it is much to Parliament’s credit that it echoed this feeling by halting last month’s proposal in its tracks. Yet it is not to the credit of the President of the Commission that he has once again entrusted such sensitive tasks to someone from the same government, which is the least credible of all the European governments in terms of justice and the defence of freedoms.
Secondly, you have given still more impetus than your predecessors to what is at the root of the European public’s crisis of confidence in the Europe being built today, a Europe based on the trend towards neo-liberalism and the cult of ‘everything for sale’. In this respect, your refusal to hear the objections which came from all quarters as a result of your approach to the competition portfolio is unlikely to appease people’s fears.
Finally, Mr President of the Commission, you should not forget that the majority of Europeans have been opposed to President Bush’s warmongering exploits from the very beginning. Despite the painful lessons delivered daily by events on the ground, we are still waiting for you to express any kind of doubts with regard to your unfortunate Azores initiative, which served to divide Europe on a matter of crucial importance to all of civilisation.
A vote in favour of investiture is a vote of confidence. For the three reasons I have given, and without my wishing to pass judgment on individual Commissioners, we have no confidence in this Commission as a whole. Guided by our commitment to a vision of Europe in which our fellow citizens feel at home, we will vote against the Barroso Commission."@en1
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