Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-28-Speech-3-030"
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"en.20070328.12.3-030"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to say straight away to Mr Watson and Mr Daul, and to others, that there is a perfectly simple way to have more women: co-presidency. We have been successful in this in the Verts/ALE Group – it works very well – and I highly recommend it to you.
We are greatly encouraged, Chancellor, by the Berlin Declaration. There are times when solemnity, rhetoric and formality are fitting, and the 50th anniversary of the creation of the European Community is surely one of those occasions, particularly because so many lives were lost in reaching that point, and it was a very hard battle that took quite some time.
We also recognise your role and are grateful to you for it – although I believe that in some way it all forms part of your duties – and we are pleased to note that in this case, unlike others – I must mention energy, cars, etc. – the German Presidency has demonstrated a European sentiment that is surely equal to the situation.
I believe that the message has got through and that public opinion has understood that this 50th anniversary is a positive goalpost and that we must continue our efforts. Of course, the European people have not paid all that much attention to the wording of the declaration or to how much work went into putting together these two short pages, in which there is not in fact anything particularly extraordinary or original. Rather, in my opinion, it is that which has been omitted from the declaration in question that demonstrates the existence of a deep division among governments – I must emphasise, among governments – as regards the future of Europe, a division that does not bode well for the work ahead of you, Chancellor, in the next few months.
We know full well that the dream of a European Union has not yet been realised; that in Darfur we cannot yet intervene as the European Union because we are divided; that energy policy – alas – for many governments essentially means bowing down before President Putin; that we are not able to define an original policy on relations with the United States, and that for all these reasons we need a strong European Union, complete with a constitution.
Chancellor, if the aim for the remainder of the Presidency is to find our way out of this
we simply cannot afford to delude ourselves: the purely intergovernmental method will not work, nor will the Berlin Declaration method, since we will not succeed, in a repeat of the night of the Nice intergovernmental conference, in reaching an agreement capable, as you have said, of saving the substance of the constitution.
For this reason we call on you to have the courage to try democracy, to have the courage to authorise the opening-up of the intergovernmental conference, allowing the European Parliament to participate in it via a codecision procedure and a ‘shuttle’ system, publicity and debate; European citizens want more Europe, not less Europe, but their governments are not always able to demonstrate it. Therefore abandon the idea that only an intergovernmental conference can enable us to achieve results, because it will not work and we will not save the substance of the constitution; we will simply be left empty-handed."@en1
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