Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-27-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20070627.3.3-021"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, despite the fact that the almost lunatic position of the social-democratic President against the democratically elected Polish Government threatens to somewhat overshadow this joyful occasion, a day on which the goodwill of all concerned has brought us to an agreement, I would above all like to thank Chancellor Merkel, to whom we are all sincerely grateful, for her efforts.
We recognise that the President has got our institutions back into gear, and as Parliament we also appreciate President Sarkozy’s mediation over the last few days.
As a former member of the European Convention, I would like to emphasise certain points to which we remain opposed: the reduction of the composition of the Commission, the absence of certain key rights of the family and children in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the absence of references to our roots and the failure to mention the symbols that have identified the Union up to now. The flag, the anthem and the motto hold symbolic value for our citizens; it is dangerous to abandon them in an era of mass immigration and the loss of core values.
The Union is not and must not be a State; it is a communion of States, and requires visual symbols to represent it. If we separate social policy from trade and monetary policy, we increase the risk of a Europe that, as in previous treaties, concerns itself with tractor windscreen wipers, but is incapable of playing a decisive role in creating wider prosperity both within and outside of the Union.
I welcome the increase in the power of the European Parliament, whose duty it is to restore in citizens and political groups the ability to defend national and regional traditions, combining them with wider Western culture. Cooperation in legal and criminal matters must result in harmonisation of trial times and elimination of reduced sentences for serious crimes against security.
There is an immediate need for migration policy – the Mediterranean countries of the Union can be left on their own no longer! For this reason we applaud the increased support for Frontex. Strengthening relations between the Union and Africa means overcoming poverty, terrorist organisations and the ever more worrying synergy between the Islamic radicalism of Iran and Hezbollah, which threatens both moderate and secular Islam and the West.
We are therefore grateful, Mrs Merkel, for what you have achieved, and we would renew our request: today, there is also a need for a Charter of Duties; duties and rights cannot be separated!"@en1
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