Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-27-Speech-3-036"
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"en.20070627.6.3-036"2
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"President-in-Office, Mr President, my sincere congratulations on your excellent work, Madam Chancellor. You have achieved a very good result, you have fulfilled expectations. That is no great surprise to the German liberals, because even before the Bundestag elections we were convinced you would make a good leader; I am just saying this for the benefit of Mr Schulz, who said so in effusive terms today, but better late than never.
Before the German Presidency began, the Free Democrats in the European Parliament had urged the at the time still very hesitant Federal Government to set an ambitious target regarding the constitutional treaty. We are therefore pleased that at the end of your presidency we not only have a timetable, but that the contents have been agreed as well. However, the price that had to be paid for that is extremely high. Names have been changed, longer time periods set, derogations allowed. With the Charter of Fundamental Rights in particular that is a real disaster. The so-called reform treaty is more complex and less transparent. A minority has had its way at the majority’s expense and the idea of Europe has suffered a severe blow as a result.
Whether the decisions that were taken in Brussels in the middle of the night will now actually be implemented remains an open question. There is no guarantee that they will. The Intergovernmental Conference must meet first and then things will not get moving until ratification begins in the 27 countries. Everything is therefore still open. The outcome of the German Presidency is therefore a fairly realistic reflection of the current mood within the EU. It is not abysmal, but it is nothing to celebrate either. What we have is the remote Europe of summits, not the close Europe of citizens. In view of the difficulties that would have made an outcome almost impossible, the Presidency has taken us a good step forwards. More would have been impossible.
Mrs Merkel, you have said how you would like Europe’s citizens to remember the year 2007 in 50 years’ time. I would like to add one hope to that: it would please me very much if in 2057 – and I might just live so long – all Europeans were to see the wonderful sentence of the Berlin Declaration ‘we have united for the better’ not as a decision taken in a back room but as something they experience every day. That would be a tremendous success for your Presidency. My sincere thanks once again!"@en1
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