Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-13-Speech-2-114"
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"en.20070213.16.2-114"2
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"Mr President, so often in politics it is not what is said in public but what is going on in secret behind the scenes that really matters, and so it is here with this forthcoming European Summit. The German Minister for European Affairs, Mr Gloser, may talk about sustainability and energy policy – although I have to say that how he keeps a straight face when he talks about the already failed Lisbon Agenda is quite beyond me.
However, what he does not talk about, of course, is the fact that this summit will discuss the European Constitution. Chancellor Merkel has made it clear that she is determined to press on and, in fact, this very week in Berlin discussions about the Constitution are going on in secret.
Once again, a great deception is being attempted. You are trying to cobble together a mini-treaty, getting rid of the 'C' word and thereby denying the peoples of Europe the opportunity to vote on their own future. It is as if you all have some higher calling and know what is good for the ordinary plebs of Europe.
You might think I am making it all up, but just last week President Barroso said: ‘As a prime minister I was in favour of a referendum [on the Constitution]’. Since then he has come to Brussels and they have clearly spiked his drinks, because now he is saying: ‘If there had been a referendum on the founding of the European Community or the implementation of the euro, do you think these would have existed?’ I think we know the answer and the answer is ‘no’. In daring even to say that, what Mr Barroso does is to expose the European project. He shows absolute contempt for the people of France and Holland who voted ‘no’ but, more seriously, he shows absolute contempt for the very process of democracy itself. If you push on relentlessly with this Constitution, if you go on denying the peoples of Europe a say in their future, you are storing up very serious problems for our children."@en1
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