Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-366"
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"en.20070523.24.3-366"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to mention in this Chamber the work carried out in committee, which has thoroughly discussed the credentials of Mr Donnici, resulting in a large majority in favour of the report.
For this very reason, in the decision of 3 July 2006 that is alleged to contradict what we have done – in fact because of that decision by the Committee on Legal Affairs – we have confirmed the election of Mr Occhetto, because at the time the proclamation was in conformity with the European Act, in that we recognised his withdrawal to be invalid, improper and null and void. The exceptions with regard to Mr Donnici were then irrelevant. It is because of this that there is no contradiction.
We took this decision last year, and today we can confirm that decision because it is consistent, thoroughly reflected on by a Committee on Legal Affairs that naturally has no partisan interest, but has every interest in promoting and guaranteeing the autonomy of this Parliament.
I defend the committee, of which I have the great honour to be chairman, and I would like to answer those making petty insinuations to the effect that the committee has not been calm or objective – insinuations that clearly do nothing to honour this Parliament, given that the committee contains many jurists. We have people and jurists such as Mr Lehne, Mr Medina, Mrs Wallis and Mrs Frassoni, to mention just the coordinators, and also very many other prominent figures throughout the committee. Our discussions were always at a high level, and were conducted exhaustively and with great sincerity. We always focused primarily on the role of this Parliament, which is a giant in terms of many things that it does and its role in Europe, but a dwarf on some occasions when you want to force it into a procedural corner.
The issue we were discussing comes within this major issue: the facts are known, the withdrawal by Mr Occhetto infringes the European Act, and we cannot give Mr Donnici a positive verdict.
The rules governing the European election procedure fall within the Community’s jurisdiction and therefore the reference to national provisions laid down in the 1976 European Act is of a solely supplementary character. The national provisions must, however, conform to the fundamental principals of the Community legal system, its primary rules and the spirit of the wording of the 1976 Act. For these reasons, the relevant legislative and administrative national authorities, as well as the jurisdictional authorities, may not omit to take account of the Community legal framework on election issues.
The admissibility of the withdrawal by Mr Occhetto must be assessed firstly on the basis of Article 4 of the 1976 Act, pursuant to which Members of Parliament may not be bound by instructions and may not receive a binding mandate, and the freedom and independence of parliamentary representatives constitutes a fundamental cornerstone of the freedom of citizens.
This is laid down in the 1976 Act, but the new Statute for Members of the European Parliament, which I now quote, even though it enters into force for the next parliamentary term, is, in the current state of the Community legal system, a legislative act of primary law, adopted by the European Parliament with the approval of the Council and published in the Official Journal. It is perfectly obvious that the withdrawal from election made by Mr Occhetto is the result of an expression of will that has been affected and vitiated by an agreement made prior to the proclamation of those elected in the 2004 European elections, that this agreement was entered into with the other member of the
list, and that this withdrawal must be considered incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Act of 1976, and specifically with Article 6. It could not under any circumstances be validly revoked, as it was revoked. In the grounds for the judgment holding the opposite to be true, the Italian Council of State – I want to confirm this in this Chamber, as an Italian – did not mention or take into account in any way the aforementioned principles of Community law, thereby disregarding not only the spirit and the letter of the Act but also Article 4 and Article 6 of the text.
Pursuant to settled case law by the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the infringement of Community law by the authorities of a Member State, even when committed by a legal body of the highest level, through a final judgment, does not prevent the Court of Justice from holding that the supreme national court is in breach of Community law as mentioned above. This does not, however, constitute a waiver of the responsibility of the State – in this case, Italy – to which the said court belongs, as has been established. I believe that all this clearly demonstrates the situation in which we find ourselves.
I would like to quickly explain two things that are part of Italian law. The act of withdrawal may validly have existing rights as its object, and in such a case the withdrawal made by Mr Occhetto with regard to Mr Chiesa is, because of its explanation, fully valid and effective. The withdrawal also holds valid for future rights, but naturally the withdrawal may certainly be revoked before the event ends, before the withdrawing party finds himself in the actual circumstance of being able to withdraw.
The withdrawal expressed by Mr Occhetto following the proclamation of the electoral results did not alter the classification of the candidates on the Di Pietro-Occhetto list. The final argument, Mr President, is that we must recognise as a basic principle of law the fact that withdrawal can only take effect at the moment in which the necessary prerequisites exist for the right to be realised."@en1
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"Società civile Di Pietro-Occhetto"1
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