Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-11-Speech-2-046"
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"en.20050111.5.2-046"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, what is at issue in today’s debate on the European Constitutional Treaty? I think that if we consider it as it stands, there are a number of things that I personally, my party, and our group – that of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats – would like to have changed: we would have liked a reference to our Judaeo-Christian heritage, a clear demarcation of powers and responsibilities, a description of the European Union’s geographical borders, public participation in the ratification process, since a constitution is actually an expression of popular sovereignty and something that ought to have been expressed somewhere in it.
On the other hand, though, this treaty makes a multitude of improvements over against the treaties that we have at present, and that is the comparison in which the Constitutional Treaty must come out best. It brings us more democracy, strengthens the European Parliament, and involves the national parliaments in the lawmaking process. Instead of weighted votes, there will be dual majority in the Council. Instead of more general clauses, powers will be specifically conferred. The Commission is to be limited in size, which will help to make it more democratic, and the Constitutional Treaty makes for greater transparency, which of course makes it necessary to involve the national parliaments. Before we come to decide on something at first reading, the national parliaments will be given the chance to say something about it. Not only in that it makes for transparency do I regard that as something important. The Council will have to hold its meetings in public. We are at last taking leave of the clandestine diplomacy that has characterised Europe for over fifty years.
To sum up, what that means to me is that the European Union will be concentrating on the tasks it can perform, rather than becoming a superstate. Even if people still need to be more informed and more involved, this is still, on the whole, a respectable treaty. I can speak for my own party, the CSU, but also for our colleagues in the CDU, when I say that we will vote in favour of this Constitutional Treaty without any reservations."@en1
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