Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-18-Speech-1-036"
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"en.20061218.6.1-036"2
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"Mr President, like Mr Farage, I fear that I too will shatter the overworked consensus that was mentioned a moment ago. Failed European summits are starting to become one of our traditions. These failures are always eventually wrapped in fine euphemisms in order not to hurt the presidency’s feelings too much. This summit, though, about the enlargement strategy – which is suddenly being taken down a gear – has been yet another complete waste of time.
Whilst the accession negotiations with Turkey are being put on hold for the moment, Ankara’s attitude towards Cyprus, as well as to other matters, such as the freedom of the press and the Armenian question, should result in the negotiations being brought to a permanent halt rather than a merely temporary one. Allow me, as a Fleming, to express my surprise and indignation at the level of arrogance with which some spokespeople of the official Europe feel the need to interfere in the freedom of press and domestic politics of other Member States. What a travesty! For years, we have been told that we must, and indeed shall, welcome the Asian Turkey in our midst in due course, but that the small and prosperous region of Flanders, located at the heart of Europe, must not become an independent Member State of the EU, as we found out last week.
This is how Mr Juncker from Luxembourg – but he was not alone – suddenly felt the need to denounce the startling report that is half-fiction, half-documentary, which the French-speaking public television station RTBF broadcast last Wednesday about the scenario of Flemish independence, something that Europe apparently cannot tolerate. So the Flemings know where they stand with these Heads of State or Government. After all, Mr Juncker and his colleagues have decreed, without tolerating any opposition, that the Belgian monarchy must be sustained. Nobody else has a say. This is not exactly what you would call great respect for the freedom of opinion, let alone the right to self-determination of peoples, when foreign Heads of State assume that they can interfere in the freedom of press in a Member State and ignore the will of the Flemings. This will of the Flemings, however, is very democratic and legitimate. Flanders wants to be freed from the Socialist Party’s corrupt dictatorship in Wallonia and from the dastardly royal offspring of the House of Saxe-Coburg. Like the Czechs and Slovaks, we want to avail ourselves of the right to self-determination. It is not the European Heads of State who should dictate to Flanders when it comes to how it should address the future."@en1
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