Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-07-Speech-3-020"
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"en.20050907.2.3-020"2
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"Mr President, Mr Clarke, Mr Frattini, you have just reminded us of the need to respond to the threat of terrorism whilst, of course, still protecting citizens’ rights, and, whatever our conceptions of Europe, I think that the time has come, in the next four months, to show that the executive and the legislature will move forward together, and will not go down any other route.
I would like to apply this perspective to the very idea of the citizen and to the ambitious legislative programme that you have presented. Indeed, allow me a slight digression. A French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, said something painfully applicable to today. In the modern constitutional state, he said, a citizen is any person who, whilst being subject to the law, can at the same time consider himself to be the author of that law; subject to, but also author of the law, be it only through his elected representatives.
Is this true for European citizens in these painful and historic times, and indeed we cannot forget the courage of your people, of your fellow citizens, Mr Clarke, nor of course the direction taken by your government’s response? Do the citizens consider themselves to be both subject to and the authors of this law? Is it true for us, as Members of Parliament, when we are presented with texts on which we have to vote within imposed deadlines, of course, and when we adopt amendments that will not even feature in the ministers’ files during their deliberations? This really has to stop. I have my doubts and I cannot help but regret the lack of an adequate response from the Council to the recommendations put to it at its meeting in The Hague and during the assessment of the Tampere Programme. You will therefore not be surprised, however willing you are to do everything necessary to progress, to see Parliament insisting so forcefully that its deliberations must be taken seriously and its prerogatives respected, particularly when the Treaty itself recognises the need for codecision.
With regard to the protection of data and of citizens’ safety, which are of concern to all of us, it is a matter of implementing the provisions both of the Treaty establishing the European Community and of the Treaty on European Union. Therefore, in conclusion, can we expect the Presidency to take true account of the European Parliament’s position and make a commitment, as soon as it wants and in a very short timeframe, to serious negotiations? Finally, I would like to say to the High Commissioner that the Commission has stated that it is prepared to respond to Parliament’s expectations, and it is in the process of preparing appropriate proposals that arouse our interest and justify our expectations."@en1
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