Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-06-Speech-3-454"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20090506.41.3-454"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I welcome this debate. It seemed for a while that it might not happen. I am glad it is happening, and it is thanks to the persistence of my colleagues that it is taking place. It is entirely appropriate for this House to responsibly and sensibly address the transition for the possible ratification – finally – of the Lisbon Treaty. It would be foolish of us not to do so. I will be working hard in the latter part of this year to ensure there is a ‘yes’ vote – whether I am elected to this House or not – and I regret that a number of my friends are not going to be here, and will miss them.
But I want, in particular, tonight to congratulate the Czech Republic for a ‘yes’ vote, because they have voted today for the future. I think that it is extremely important that we get this message across: that the unification of Europe and the building of a united Europe is about the future for the people of Europe.
Nowhere else in the world outside of Europe do we have 27 sovereign Member States sharing decision-making on a cross-border basis in the common interests of their people. Nowhere else do independent states submit their collective decisions for approval and amendment to a directly elected multinational parliament. This Union of ours is unique. It is a unique democratic experiment. It is not without its faults. It needs reform, and indeed the reforms in the Treaty of Lisbon are the reforms on which we can agree at this point in time. No doubt future Parliaments – and indeed future Councils – will identify and agree further reforms.
But Europe also needs a new direction. It needs to reassert its commitment to the social well-being of our peoples and to rebalance the almost exclusive obsession with market liberalisation that we have had for the past decade. It must be borne in mind that the political and social and economic orientation of this Union is driven by the choices made by the electorates: in general elections, in European elections and by the commissions that we collectively select and put in place. The European Union is where we settle the disputes, where young men previously resolved them by killing each other in trenches. It is a great honour for me to participate in this Parliament, where we have replaced the force of arms with the force of argument.
We cannot let the Eurosceptics turn the clock back. That the decision of one Member State, representing less than 1% of the population of the Union, could stop it in its tracks is a sign of how delicate our construction is. But it is also a sign of the strength of the Union that we can survive and allow the peoples of Europe to independently make these decisions. We must, I believe, try and reinfuse the dream of Europe with our people. We have to avoid getting dragged down into the gutter by the angry old men who stand up at the backbenches up there on the far right and who scream at us and tell us how undemocratic we are, when in fact this is the Parliament elected by the people of Europe to make decisions for the people of Europe."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples