Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-222"
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"en.20060322.17.3-222"2
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".
Mr President, at this stage of European development – which some would describe as a ‘lack of European development’ – the significance of this report cannot be over-emphasised. The fact is that it is not just about political parties, and I think that is the good thing about it and about what the rapporteur is trying to do.
I also – and, yes, I really am finishing now – ask you to bear in mind the amendments tabled in the name of my group by Mr Guardans, on participation by women in political parties.
He could indeed have said that, yes, there are ten political parties: he could have a look at how they work and what we do with them. But no: he opted for a much broader philosophical approach, and I think he was right to do so, for it has everything to do with the European political area that the Commissioner himself highlighted. After all, what is it that we constantly hear, not only during election campaigns but also in the interim? We hear people asking, ‘What is this European parliament thing for, when there is no European political area?’ They are right: there is not one. There is no such thing as European public opinion. It does not exist; it is not even possible.
Nor will it be if people do their utmost to ensure that no such European political area ever comes into being, of the kind that we need if there is to be European political debate without regard to frontiers.
Let us take a look at the situation as it stands now. There are twenty-five commissioners, chosen primarily on the basis of their nationality. The Council is, of course, composed on the basis of nationalities. Not even this Parliament is elected through a European election, but through 25 national ones, which approximately coincide in time, but are not precisely one. You will not, of course, end up with a European political area that way.
It is that European political area that we will indeed be in need of if we are ever to see an elected President of the Commission, whether he is to be elected by this House or, as I would prefer, by the European electorate. It is that that will usher in a cross-border, European political debate. Or, if there is to be a European referendum, then let there be, instead of 25 national referenda, one single European referendum, for example on whether to have a new constitution or stick with the old one.
What I am in favour of is, in one way or another, giving European elections a European element, at least to some extent. Then you will have a European political debate, for which a European political area which be needed – as, too, will political parties, if you want a representative democracy, which we do, because we want politicians such as ourselves to be monitored, and the only way they will be is if you have strong political parties, certainly stronger than they are at present.
They will then have to be well run, and that means that their specific financial needs will have to be met. I am glad that this report gives consideration to this, for example by creating the flexibility to carry over funds from one year to the next.
At the European level, political parties operate to a five-year cycle, rather than from one year to the next. It is of course worthy of note that other NGOs are now very tightly regulated, in ways that some of them find highly inconvenient, and perhaps we ought to take a look at them too. With that in mind, Mr Dehaene put it very well when he said that there is nothing crazy about giving to others too the flexibility that we want our political parties to enjoy.
Let me turn, finally, to the call for a single statute. This is something of which I am very much in favour, and on that point too, I am at one with the rapporteur. We need to give serious consideration to European foundations, and I would prefer to opt for party political ones; I think the German system is the most civilised in the world in this regard and if we were to be able to have the same thing at European level, we would be able to count ourselves rich."@en1
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