Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-10-Speech-3-075"
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"en.20071010.17.3-075"2
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"Madam President, I would like to join my colleagues in thanking the co-rapporteurs for their efforts with regard to what is a very difficult and complex issue.
Ultimately, despite what some colleagues may say, turkeys do not vote for Christmas, so why would any present Member of the European Parliament look to see their seat being taken away? There is a legitimate reasoning behind the desire of those who seek to have the highest number of seats available to them in each of the national categories. I would be slow to denigrate that attitude in anybody. Because, if anything, when we look back over the changes that have occurred since the first direct elections to the European Parliament took place in 1979, there have been phenomenal demographic and population trend changes across the European Union, not least because of the expansion of the European Union into eastern Europe in 2004, which allowed for the free movement of so many people into other countries, which has altered the populations greatly.
I think one of the careful elements that we have to speak about (and we can speak about degressive proportionality till the cows come home) is that there has always been a balance between the different institutions – and also a balance between the larger and smaller Member States – to ensure that no one institution would have total domination over another, or that larger Member States could not dominate medium-sized or small Member States. That is why it is important to maintain this balance as much as possible.
I welcome the rapporteurs’ inclusion, in a compromise amendment, of maintaining that interinstitutional balance. But, as well as that, when we look at the figures that have been used – and much has been quoted by other colleagues here with regard to the Eurostat figures – out of the 27 countries, the figures that Eurostat for 15 of those countries are using are only provisional figures from the central statistics offices of those countries. So, decisions are being made on only provisional figures when that could have a lasting impact with regard to the future allocation of seats in Parliament.
We must also keep an eye on further enlargement taking in Croatia, which would also impact negatively. Therefore, I would urge caution when voting on this issue."@en1
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