Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-170"
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"en.20080902.25.2-170"2
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"Mr President, I rise – as is becoming traditional on these occasions – to point out that the harmonisation of European policy in the fields of justice and home affairs has only the flimsiest of legal bases. Much in the reports on which we have just voted – the Kaufmann, França, Brejc, Weber and Lambert reports – is there to give force to aspects of policy, to initiatives and, in the case of Eurojust, to an entire institution, that have no proper legal mandate. It is true that such a mandate would have been provided by the European Constitution or Lisbon Treaty, but it is equally the case – as it seems periodically necessary to remind this Chamber – that the Constitution was rejected three times: by 55% of French voters, by 62% of Dutch voters and by 54% of Irish voters.
The ability to have a monopoly on penal coercion via a criminal justice system is perhaps the supreme defining attribute of statehood. We can define a state as a territory with agreed rules enforced by a common authority. If the European Union wishes to give itself that supreme attribute of statehood, it should have the decency to ask its peoples’ permission first in referendums.
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