Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-260"
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"en.20070523.20.3-260"2
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"Mr President, I bid Prime Minister Balkenende welcome to the European Parliament. Just as, of course, the ‘no’ in the Netherlands was relatively firm, no less so, too, was the ‘yes’ from the European Parliament. I should like to give you credit for the fact that in your contribution and also in your responses, you tried to venture beyond the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to see how we could come up with a Treaty. Not a Treaty of a kind that, I agree with you, has been stripped naked, but a Treaty that gives answers to a number of key issues that we are facing. Sometimes, this means that more is needed than what was set down in the original constitution, sometimes less or different.
I should like to try to move this debate to the next level with a number of very specific questions. You said that you support the idea of criteria being put in place for services of general interest, so that countries will be able to regulate their own public housing, health care or other areas more. Are you prepared, via a protocol or in the Treaty, to include a basis for this of some kind, so that a legal basis of some kind is in place?
Secondly, you said something about the Charter. If I understand correctly, you say you and your colleagues in the Dutch Government agree with the content of the Charter, and would like to see it become binding, but it need not be included in its entirety, as long as there is a document in the new Treaty that safeguards this binding character. What I would like to know is whether you have a formula that can make this happen, for, if you do, I share your way of thinking.
Thirdly, subsidiarity. Your plea in the field of subsidiarity is to create more room, to keep at a local level what can be done at a local level. Do you have a formula to tighten up subsidiarity, and if so, what is it, compared to the formula included in the draft Constitution? Are you prepared, in this connection, to give the regions more room to experiment?
Fourthly, you stated that you would like to abolish a host of vetoes, which will give us in this House an undoubted right of codecision, although that is not what we want in certain areas. Are you mainly referring to criminal law? Perhaps you would not mind clarifying again what your formula would be in that respect.
You also said that ‘Foreign Affairs Minister’ is not the title we use. So what are we supposed to call him?
Finally, if the Netherlands opts for a Treaty, and a sound one at that, then I hope that the Prime Minister will blaze a trail in his own country, along with leaders of the other coalition parties, to inform the Dutch people and also get them onboard in good time, so that a real debate can underpin positive support for Europe."@en1
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