Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-20-Speech-3-086"
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"Mr President, this has indeed been a lively and interesting debate, on which I would like to make three remarks.
This means that one cannot use the lack of available information as an excuse. All the texts are available, and there is also information available on the Commission’s website, which gives questions and answers and factual information about the Treaty, relating to the specific substantial issues.
There is an obligation on all of us to help citizens to have access to all the factual information that they need, and also to have answers to their specific questions.
In response to what Mr Rübig said, we know from previous Eurobarometer opinion polls that people are interested in the substantial issues first and foremost, and not so much in the institutional issues. But I expect that several Member States will also carry out specific opinion polls to check on public opinion in the respective Member States. We will see more of this in the coming months. The Commission will monitor these issues in general, through the Eurobarometer.
Please refer citizens and everyone you meet to our new website, which is called ‘Debate Europe’. We have relaunched ‘Debate Europe’ to include the new Reform Treaty. Follow the debate, and please encourage people to make interventions and participate in the debate on the internet.
Let me also say that I hope we can engage young people and women in this debate, because in talking about democracy and representative democracy, we also want to see more women in the debate, hopefully also as leaders of our institutions and of the European Union in the future.
If women do not see that they are represented, they will hesitate before they give their support to our different projects and decisions. So this is also a democratic task and mission for all of us.
Finally, Mr Nassauer made a very important point about the national parliaments and how we can follow up in this area and ensure it is complementary. The increased and strengthened role of the European Parliament fits well with anchoring this matter into national parliamentary procedures in every Member State. This is also something we will have to prepare properly and thoroughly, with the national parliaments. They have a big role which should be fully prepared.
Thank you for this debate. The Commission will work closely with Parliament and with the Council in order to prepare for implementation and will definitely make every effort to communicate and make sure that people have access to all the information and the debate fora that they need to discuss the future of Europe.
First of all, I will deal with implementation, since several of you have raised particular, specific issues on implementation and follow-up. I would also like to say something about the discussion on democracy that has taken place here, and to link that to communication and debate.
To start with the questions from Mr Deprez, Mr Dehaene, Mr Barón Crespo and Mr Duff, several of you have asked about what happens now in terms of preparing for the implementation of the new Reform Treaty.
I expect that preparations are going on in all the institutions, in that we are looking at what will be required of our respective institutions – in the case of the Commission coming forward with specific legislative proposals – and what this will take in terms of interinstitutional cooperation and practical preparations. This will have to be done with full respect for the ratification process that is now going on.
Our approach in the Commission has been to do this in a formally absolutely correct way and to respect the ratification processes – not to anticipate but to be prepared. I believe this has also been the approach in the Council, where an inventory has been carried out, and we are, of course, looking in the same way at the obligations that will fall on the Commission.
We will, of course, cooperate with Parliament and will sit down and look at what has to be done in practical terms. It is good that a discussion is also under way in the respective institutions to ensure that everything is ready and can be handled in a formally absolutely correct way. We are getting ready, of course, to start the practical work.
A lot has been said about democracy, bringing to mind what Churchill, who has already been referred to, said about it: ‘democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time’.
Whichever ratification method is chosen – and it is up to every government and every Member State to decide which one to use – the Commission will respect it, and will also consider ratification by national parliaments to be democratically legitimate. Whichever method is chosen, there will have to be communication with citizens.
I would inform everyone who has asked for a consolidated text that the message from the Council is that such a text will be produced, hopefully as soon as possible, and that in the spring we will definitely have a consolidated text from the Council. I know that, to date, a good dozen consolidated texts are available in different language versions. I know that the House of Lords has produced a consolidated text; I know that the French Senate has produced a consolidated text; and I know it also exists in Germany. It is available on the internet."@en1
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