Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-159"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080219.28.2-159"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, when Parliament first convened this series of debates on the future of Europe, few could foresee a Treaty in force by 2009. Europe was sinking, and to paraphrase Mr Reinfeldt’s countryman, August Strindberg, ‘there was something unnatural in it, for nature demands progress, evolution, and every backward step means wasted energy.’
Well, since then, the European Union has found the collective energy to set Europe back on the path to progress. By the time the Prime Minister’s country takes over the reins in 2009, the EU will have undergone a democratic revolution: it will be more open, more accountable, more responsive to its citizens. So those who attack the EU for being undemocratic are barking mad to oppose a treaty which puts citizens and their representatives in the driving seat. They are also barking up the wrong tree when they bring their protest to this Parliament, which has no responsibility for decisions by national governments on whether to hold a referendum.
The Prime Minister, with his record as a consensus-builder in his own country, looks an ideal candidate to launch the European Union under a new Council, a new Parliament and a new Commission. But will he, in fact, be taking over the reins – as have presidencies in the past – or will he be simply a
to the full-time President of the Council?
The truth is that the Treaty provides a framework for a future we have yet to sketch, a future where the biggest single challenge for our Union, as Sweden’s Europe Minister says, is delivering the practical results which citizens rightly demand and not the interminable naval gazing, which a
will simply prolong.
Survey after survey shows that the Euro-sceptics are wrong. Citizens do not want less Europe. They want more: more joint action on terrorism, more joint action on energy and the environment, on defence and foreign affairs, on migration, on research and development. They want Europe to think big. And, yet, in almost all these areas, cooperation is in its infancy, because Member State governments in national capitals persist in gainsaying the public will.
We have 10 months left before the Treaty enters into force. It is time for us to get our House in order, for this House to prepare for the greatest increase in powers it has ever seen and for the Council and the Commission to ‘Lisbonise’ both legislative proposals in the pipeline and current practices which must change.
Urgent challenges lie ahead, as the Prime Minister alluded to. They will not be met without loyal cooperation between the institutions of government. My plea to the Prime Minister is to make sure that, by the time we have codecision in almost 80 policy areas and a huge increase in the workload of this House and in the Council, we have greater dialogue between Parliament and the Council to allow us to manage the Union properly: when it comes to dealing with the biggest foreign policy challenge for the Union now – the issue of Kosovo; when it comes to dealing with the question of Turkey, on which I agree so much with what the Prime Minister said; when it comes to dealing with big challenges, like world population growth, poverty and migration, of which he spoke.
The Prime Minister outlined the challenges of globalisation, both at our immediate borders and beyond, challenges to which EU cooperation has the answers. Previous prime ministers have done the same in this Chamber, though without achieving such cooperation, so I commend to you a Swedish saying:
it is well to learn from the errors of others, since there is no time to make them yourself."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"Conseil des sages"1
"Gott lära av andras fel, eftersom man inte hinner begå alla själv"1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples