Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-07-Speech-4-013"
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"en.20070607.3.4-013"2
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"Madam President, one thing we all know. Those of us here and those protesting at Heiligendamm. The key challenges facing our people; challenges like climate change, energy security and international crime remain unsolved because our institutions of government are no longer fit for purpose.
The path of the lowest common denominator outcome leads inexorably to a two-tier Europe.
Let the faint hearts be warned: this is our best chance to make Europe work for our citizens. We must not and we will not let it go.
Member States recognised this when they signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution, and yet some now backtrack on those commitments without even attempting ratification.
Such an approach is contrary to the spirit of European Union, contrary to common sense, contrary to the interests of Europe’s citizens. As Javier Solana said last month, ‘just when we should be at our most alert, just when the world’s demand for Europe is at its highest, the Union has turned inwards, immersed in a state of institutional crisis’.
Acting together, Europe could make a real difference where individual Member States meet only a brick wall. The detention of the Bulgarian nurses is a case in point. As a result of January’s Council, diplomatic pressure from all European Capitals has been brought to bear that could soon bring the nurses’ captivity to an end. We call on the Presidency of this House to demand that the Summit unite in the same manner in support of Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held in Gaza.
And yet on wider issues, matters of crucial importance? Well, as Mark Twain reminded us, when all is said and done much more has been said than done!
How can we protect our citizens from abuse of data? How can we ensure energy security? How can we manage migration policy if we fail to equip ourselves with the tools for the job? Are the naysayers serious in saying they will sacrifice good governance for the sake of flags and titles? Can they really defend a system of national vetoes which, as President-in-Office Steinmeier pointed out, castrates key initiatives? Codecision and qualified majority voting must be the norm, not the exception, in European policymaking.
June’s European Council is an opportunity to close a barren chapter of non-cooperation and start afresh with a toolkit equipped for the times. This House stands firm in its desire to secure a roadmap for reform that can enter into force by the next European elections. We demand robust Parliamentary participation in the IGC, at which we demand greater and more pluralistic representation.
As one of the co-authors of the Constitutional Treaty at the European Convention, this House expects to be treated as such, not consigned to the margins as we were for previous Treaties. If the text is to surmount the perceived lack of legitimacy of the original, then the people’s representatives must be given a voice. That voice will argue against a
compromise on the substance of the text. It will insist that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is too important to be downgraded in the manner proposed by the UK, because that way lies differential membership, differential citizenship, differential rights which have no place in a Europe of equals."@en1
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