Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-252"
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"en.20070523.20.3-252"2
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".
Mr President, yesterday, the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Prodi, urged the Members of this Parliament to defend in their countries the old draft for a European Constitution and said that this draft already contains so many compromises that it is virtually impossible that there should be any more of them.
This sort of talk goes down well here, for this is a place where democracy is mainly seen on a large scale and from up above. It has transpired that this can really clash with a small-scale democracy from the bottom up, in which many more people feel involved.
In 2005, the parliaments of the Member States were in favour of this constitution by large majorities. In the Netherlands, this figure was even as high as 85%, and in the Netherlands, unlike in France, where only the president decides on such things, it is parliament that decides on the subject of a referendum. The referendum was held at the proposal of three parties that were in favour of the constitution and that really believed that the voters thought the same way. Despite a high turn-out, 62% voted ‘no’. It is highly likely that a majority of the voters in Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark would have equally said ‘no’ had they been given the opportunity.
Today, the Dutch Prime Minister Mr Balkenende is struggling more than his Italian counterpart did yesterday. Earlier this year, the following agreement was reached in the government agreement on behalf of his coalition and at the behest of the voters – and I quote ‘attempts are being made to change, and possibly combine, the existing EU treaties in which subsidiarity and democratic control are safeguarded and in which content, size and title are significantly different from the previously rejected Constitutional Treaty’.
The Dutch Government was right to point out that in the European Union, the national parliaments must be given more voting power and that national decisions on public services should not be distorted. This is different from the constitutional text that calls for an ever more far-reaching liberalisation of services and free, unadulterated competition. This Parliament, which backed my proposal on 10 May to give the Member States, their regions and their municipalities more freedom in the way in which they organise their public transport should recognise the value of this.
I would say the following to Prime Minister Balkenende and his government. If you receive insufficient support in this Parliament today, this does not mean that you are cut off from Europe. You have the difficult task of realising your government agreement. There is no reason why you should let others who still hold onto the old constitutional project dictate to you."@en1
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