Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-11-Speech-2-138"

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"Mr President, the major risks from this Constitution are three in number. The first is, are we to become a federation, a federation both on foreign affairs and in defence and elsewhere, or are we to be a Europe of a loose federation of dissimilar partners, especially after enlargement? The second is, are we to be a Europe of social awareness or are we to be a Europe of the open, uncontrolled market? The third is, are we to be a Europe without a democratic deficit, with power in the hands of the citizens, or are we to be a Europe in which European elections are held and we have abstentions of 70, 60 or 50%? In my opinion, this Constitution answers all these questions most positively, in all events much more positively than they are addressed under current treaties. Anyone against this Constitution, allegedly for reasons of social sensitivity, needs to answer the question of whether the existing treaties help the poor and the weak in Europe more than this Constitution helps them. Allow me an element of minor national pride as a Greek and as a socialist: it was during the Greek Presidency, in June 2003, that the initial negotiations on this Constitution were concluded, and I am proud of that. Of course, it now remains to be applied and this is where the MEPs and the governments have a huge responsibility. We need to ensure that the seeds of social awareness sown in the Constitution do not remain pretty words and are put into practice. The famous social mainstreaming clause setting out the Union's obligation to ensure that its every policy promotes the objectives of high employment, environmental protection, public health, education and equality between men and women can only be applied under good laws. Similarly, I must tell you that, for any MEPs striving for a socially fairer Europe, this is a particularly painstaking and particularly welcome challenge."@en1

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