Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-028"
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"en.20070314.3.3-028"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, I would like to make two brief additional remarks on this interesting contribution to the debate about the content of the Berlin Declaration.
The first has to do with the fact that European construction, or the European project, is not ‘ready’ – and will never be fully ready. It is a construction that we are working on constantly, and I think this is an example of that. With all its successes and shortcomings, this is what we are still doing. We are adding another piece to the puzzle or to this architecture of Europe, and I think it is very important, as several of you have underlined, that we have not only to look back but rather to concentrate on what we want for the future. What about the 20-year-olds of today and their dreams for the future? How can we describe those? How can we illustrate a vision for the future?
You are the directly-elected representatives of the peoples of Europe. You have to have your ears to the ground, and that is what you have reported here today: what you have heard, your impression of what is important to put into this declaration.
Secondly, we will not be able to continue to construct a European project, European cooperation, if we do not have people behind us, if we are not working in a democratic, open and transparent way. This is absolutely clear and, as much as you criticise it, this is exactly that, is it not? It is open, it is public, it is reported to the media – what you are saying here is heard. We understand that you cannot negotiate the content of a two-page text with 450 million people, but we can make sure that what you have heard and what we think is most important, from different political points of view, is put into the hands of those who are now drafting the text. This is what the debate is all about.
So, to continue to fight for democracy must be one of our basic tasks, and to find modern ways of engaging with citizens has to be a very important part of the declaration, to show that this is possible.
As much as we all feel our national identities to be extremely important, we do not see that in contradiction to also feeling that we are European, or international, or globetrotters, or what have you. We consider it possible to open our eyes and to open up our perspectives, and that is why we believe in this cooperation in the European project. I hope that is the idea of us meeting here and both putting together what we are proud of in the history of the European Union, and formulating our hopes for the next 50 years of European cooperation and integration."@en1
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