Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-23-Speech-2-045"
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"en.20071023.7.2-045"2
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".
Mr President, the Union’s leaders are to be congratulated for reaching agreement on the new EU Treaty. Decisions will be easier to take within the EU institutions at EU level. That is exactly what the new Treaty will do. The EU works well when Parliament, the Commission, and the Council are all pulling together in the new spirit.
Mr President, whilst others may say what happened at the Lisbon Summit was shocking, I am of the firm belief that the elected representatives that are the governments of the peoples of the Member States of the European Union are entitled to defend what they see as the rights of their people within that Union.
I think that when we look at the overall example that has been given with this Lisbon Summit, we can see positives from it: we can see movement forward being made and, most importantly of all, an opportunity for a new zone and a new area of the development of the European Union to come into play, in particular with those areas where codecision now reigns on issues of environment, globalisation, research, education and the necessity of the response of the European Institutions to an ever-increasing speed of change within the world.
But there are also difficulties – and some colleagues have referred to them – in the area of justice and home affairs, for instance, where Ireland had to look for a specific opt-in and opt-out with regard to certain areas. That does not mean that we are against more cooperation and coordination. In fact, our role within Europol and within Eurojust in dealing with drug trafficking and tackling cross-border crime has been ahead of most. We are working with eight other countries in the Maritime Organisation Analysis Centre to combat cocaine trafficking.
But I think the one and most important issue, when we speak about democracy and ratifying this Treaty, is that the ratification process is another step towards informing the people and public of Europe of what we can do. Unfortunately, in only one country – my own country, Ireland – will there be a referendum. I would appeal to colleagues when we speak about the future development of Europe not to make the same mistake that President Prodi made when he was President of Commission by saying that this is only the first step towards a further treaty and further treaties which will bring about change, because the people who vote in the referendum ask the question: what is the point in voting on this treaty if we have to vote again on another one at some future date?
Allow us, where we have to connect democratically with the people, to tell them exactly what is in this Treaty and, most importantly of all, let this be a welcome to small and medium-sized countries of what can be achieved by defending their interests and rights."@en1
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