Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-04-Speech-2-313"
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"en.20060404.24.2-313"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to start this presentation of my report by expressing my thanks to all those who have participated in this work. This came before our Committee a year ago, the proposal was put to Parliament on 6 April 2005, and from the start of May our Committee began to deliberate on it. Since then statements have been given by the Committee on Budgets, on which Neena Gill has done such good work, and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, on which Giusto Catania has also done good work. There has also been a statement on this issue from the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, drafted by Maria da Assunção Esteves. I would like to thank them all for their excellent, well-informed statements.
I might say that this year we have been very busy, and I also want to thank all the shadow rapporteurs and the Committee’s determined female – and male – members, who have assisted me in this, and all the others who have been involved. We are now at a point, then, where this is to be voted on tomorrow, and I was thinking of saying a few more words about this report.
It contains four Actions. The first is ‘Active citizens for Europe’, which includes town-twinning and which has now received a lot of positive publicity and feedback through the existing programme. Citizens’ projects also come under Action 1. Action 2 is ‘Active civil society for Europe’. This is a means of acquiring structural support for EU think tanks and civil society organisations as well as support for civil society projects. This is also a very important Action. Action 3 is ‘Together for Europe’: high-visibility events, studies, dissemination and information. Action 4 is ‘Active European remembrance throughout Europe’.
The purpose of this programme was specifically to reach those Europeans who, for one reason or another, have not yet managed to take part in the European agenda. As we know, currently there are people who have for some reason felt the issue of Europe to be alien to them, and Europe has even seen growing exclusion. Through this programme we have tried to find those people and create a programme suited to them so that they too might experience what it is to act together, what European identity is, and how we can strengthen the common European identity.
Both the recent events in connection with the European Parliament elections and the results of referendums show that far too few people are interested in matters that affect all of us. As we know, it is important to strengthen European identity and it is important to increase activity in which all nations of Europe are involved, thereby creating opportunities for everyone to participate. In a word, this programme has worked on the assumption that what we needed was not an elitist programme, but a programme that would be appropriate for all Europeans. Some might say that it is a bit of a patchwork quilt or that many issues of greatly varying importance have been put in the same programme, but it is tailor-made precisely in order to overlap successfully with some existing programmes and really give all Europeans the opportunity to get involved in Europe.
Now it appears that, although the Committee was almost unanimous (just two abstained and the rest voted for the programme), a few amendments are going to be tabled at tomorrow’s part-session. They mainly relate to Action 4, active remembrance. They also concern organisations which are already mentioned in this programme. Regarding these organisations, I would like to say the following: I hope that this part of the programme that deals with active remembrance will help us adhere to its original purpose of supporting memorial sites to the victims of Nazism and Stalinism, because the impact of these totalitarian regimes was a European-wide one and was not limited to a single country. Regarding this, I want to thank Marianne Mikko in particular, as it was she who made a strong case for the Stalinist component and wanted it to be included.
In this connection I must say that I hope that we will keep to our views on this. I also hope that the additional remarks which have been made by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, and the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance with regard to these new organisations
the Berlin-based
and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, can be adopted as part of this programme. Unfortunately, time is so short and I have gone over mine, so I cannot speak here any longer, but I will say thank you for all the support. I hope that the vote will go as we on the Committee would like it to."@en1
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"Institut für Europäische Politik"1
"Maisons de l'Europe"1
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