Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-31-Speech-4-012"
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"en.20080131.4.4-012"2
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Mr President, President of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the debate we are having today is taking place, as you know, in a context characterised by two essential elements.
The first of these – I don’t have to remind you – is the calendar. Being generous, we have at best 16 operational months before the end of the European Parliament’s current term. So you see how, with such a tight timescale, we need to agree on the matters we hope to finalise together in the time that remains. We cannot do everything; we will need to choose and stick to our decision.
The second element, Mr President, is even more significant from our point of view. This is that the prospect of the entry into force of the new treaty, you know as well as we do, will lead to major structural changes in our area of competence. I would particularly mention the removal of the artificial separation of policies in the first pillar from those in the third pillar, which will have the effect, in particular, of introducing codecision and subjecting measures that until now were mainly the sole preserve of the Council and fell outside the competence of the European Court of Justice to real judicial control.
You will therefore understand our impatience to see the new treaty enter into force as quickly as possible, since it represents both a strengthening of democratic control and a strengthening of the rights of citizens. And you will also understand in the light of these two criteria, which are – I repeat – the strengthening of democratic control and the strengthening of citizens’ rights, the reticence we feel in principle about dealing under the current treaty set-up with sensitive matters that could soon be dealt with under the provisions of the new treaty.
This reticence in principle is very real. It runs deep, and it is widely shared by the different political groups represented both in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and in the more general setting of our assembly. However deep it runs, this reticence is also, at least at present, quite measured. We are not motivated, Mr President, President of the Council, Commissioner, by the perverse intention of delaying taking action on important matters that have reached maturity and the urgency of which is not in doubt.
On the contrary, we are willing to try to reach a kind of gentlemen’s agreement, through genuine dialogue, that would give each of our institutions the safeguards and guarantees it believes necessary. In our view, it should be possible to come to an agreement very quickly on some kind of interinstitutional legislative programme for 2008 and the first half of 2009, which would contain a limited number of common priorities in sensitive matters, would come with mutual commitments, and would enable us to benefit from the positive provisions of the new treaty, without bringing them in early.
Parliament already indicated a possible method of responding to this request during the vote held at the last plenary in Strasbourg on modifying the Staff Regulations and missions of Europol. Indeed, President of the Council, Commissioner, it was by an overwhelming majority of 537 votes that Parliament adopted an amendment stipulating that this decision would be revised within six months of the date of entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.
Of course, even though it was adopted by an overwhelming majority, this unilateral amendment is not binding. However, as you will have understood, it is a very clear manifestation of our political will to open up a discussion and find solutions. It is in this spirit that our committee confirms both its determination and its availability for a genuine interinstitutional dialogue."@en1
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