Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-019"
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"en.20070314.3.3-019"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Madam Vice-President of the Commission, the fact that the Union has decided to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its construction is not only normal, in my opinion, but may also prove useful, since we are seizing this opportunity to look clearly at the progress made and are learning inevitably contradictory lessons from this experience. On the other hand, if this anniversary were to take the form of a simple celebration of a jubilee designed to extol all the decisions that governed the EU’s construction and to glorify all of its results, without distinction, then, as far as historical analyses are concerned, it would be of very little importance and, in terms of political effectiveness, it would be a complete waste of time.
Well, all the signs are that the famous Berlin Declaration, in the spirit of its initiators, opts for the latter, starting with the method used to draft it: where there should have been a consultation that was largely open to the citizens, it was decided that leaders would debate more or less behind closed doors. In my view, this is a mistake. A second element concerns the very substance of the declaration. It would seem, in actual fact, that what is in store for us is a very general text, focusing on an inevitably brilliant and exemplary review of 50 years of European integration, on naturally very generous common values and on inevitably ambitious objectives, particularly in the social sphere.
Do you really believe that the reality experienced by our fellow citizens is as flawless as that? For my part, I firmly believe that no debate whatsoever on Europe will have a real impact today if it is not accompanied by a good dose of criticism regarding the causes of the crisis of confidence that has been raging for some years now in virtually all circles of public opinion and throughout the European institutions.
It is no longer just my group that is finding this. It is eminent political officials involved in overseeing the Union’s affairs who, in private or in small groups, recognise that a problem exists, between Europe as it is developing today and Europeans. The last such person to recognise this was none other than your colleague, Mr President, the President-in-Office of the ECOFIN Council, Mr Steinbrück, who recently referred to the risk – I quote – ‘of a crisis of legitimacy of the European economic and social model’, and he is right. We therefore need to talk about this if we are to restore meaning to the great European adventure.
Thus, because I want the Union to provide itself with the means to come out of this crisis on top, I, together with my group, call for a shake-up, so that, when we come to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, talk will turn to the changes needed to pave the way for a genuine revival of the European project."@en1
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