Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-266"
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"en.20070523.20.3-266"2
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"Mr President, Prime Minister, you can be proud of the Dutch people. Sixty-two per cent of them voted ‘no’ – contrary to the advice of the majority of politicians. You are now, however, being put under pressure by Germany, where at least 70% of people would vote against the Constitution if they were allowed to vote on it. That is, of course, a statement that the Germans are welcome to disprove. As an itinerant critic of the Constitution, however, I have not been in any country with more opposition to it. People want less interference by the EU and they want the proximity principle genuinely to be applied. Even the former German President, Roman Herzog, now warns against over-centralisation and the dismantling of democracy. Eighty-four per cent of German laws come from Brussels. In Brussels there is, emphatically, no democracy. Mr Herzog says that it is doubtful whether the Federal Republic can be called a parliamentary democracy. It is that Germany that is now threatening its French and Dutch neighbours and saying: your people were mistaken; you should dress the Constitution up in new clothes and abolish referendums.
Why do you accept that, Mr Balkenende? Why do you not insist that Germany too consult its electorate before making war on the voters in neighbouring countries? The Dutch negotiators now want the Constitution to be presented a second time – ‘presented’ being the operative word - so that a referendum can be avoided. However, you are not proposing any real and substantial changes to the rejected text, and two years have now gone by without the approval of 80% of the Member States yet being obtained. The Constitution is legally dead. We should start afresh with new negotiations and a referendum throughout the EU. It will then be possible to discuss matters with the German Government."@en1
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