Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-16-Speech-2-248"
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"en.20081216.31.2-248"2
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"Mr President, Vice-President of the Commission, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, two events have shown that Europe can play a role and have influence. In Georgia, it was Europeans who stopped the war, and in the financial crisis it was Europeans who forced the others in the world, via the G8 and the G20, to agree to arrangements and to negotiate, so that in future this kind of thing will not be possible again.
Can we really leave it to chance to have an active Presidency of the Council by one of the large Member States next time, however? I say this because France and President Sarkozy have excelled. I believe that we need a more stable institutional framework to ensure that it will be able to function in future. That is why the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon is so important for so many reasons and that is the third event on which I would like to compliment the French Presidency, in that it achieved an agreement, on the basis of what the Irish Parliament drew up, to propose solutions relating to the clarifications – or whatever name is to be used – of the issue of Commissioners and much else besides.
I believe that it is now Ireland’s responsibility to respond to this in a positive manner. As many of us have said already, these things, and in particular the question of Commissioners, have not been easy to accept for many people. I do believe, however, that efficiency can be achieved in some other way.
There is one important thing to point out in this case, and that is that the reaction of the opponents of the Treaty of Lisbon shows that they are having to make up new material now that their arguments from the first referendum have been taken away from them. From this it is clear that they are no friends of Europe, that they are not people who want a better Europe, but are instead dead set against European integration and are always looking for new arguments to help them reach their goal.
This should be incentive enough to push on and bring this matter to a close. I am sure that the Czech Presidency – the first Council presidency by a former Warsaw Pact country – will set about this issue with a particular sense of its responsibility and will, in collaboration with its French and Swedish colleagues, bring this matter to a successful conclusion."@en1
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