Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-07-Speech-3-059"
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"en.20091007.17.3-059"2
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"Mr President, last Friday was a really historic step: 67% of the votes. You can change all the constitutions in Europe with a two-thirds majority; I think a two-thirds majority is also necessary in Sweden.
We have to thank Brian Cowen. I also especially thank Pat Cox, who did a great job, and all pro-Lisbon Irish MEPs because they conducted a tremendous campaign in favour of the Treaty. So I am happy. The reason is that we started this whole exercise in the aftermath of the Nice Treaty, with a declaration in Laeken, and it has taken eight years – so I promise not to restart this whole process, Mr President.
With this Irish ‘yes’, all the citizens of Europe, directly or indirectly, by a referendum or by their parliaments, have said ‘yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty. That was also a message to the Eurosceptics who were always saying ‘no – the people are against Europe, against the European institutions’. Sixty-seven per cent of the Irish population: what we saw on Friday is a clear message to the Eurosceptics.
We have to ask everyone to take his or her responsibility so the Lisbon Treaty can enter into force as quickly as possible. Now is the time to bring this process finally to an end. With this Irish ‘yes’, we know that the Lisbon Treaty will be brought into effect; we know that, because it was the last hurdle. However, we do not know when it will come into effect, and I think that is the problem we have to discuss this afternoon. What do we do in the meantime?
We know that we have to wait until the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic has spoken. As you said yesterday in
in the worst case scenario, we still have a few months to wait and I think that nobody in this House can tolerate the fact that the Union will be a lame duck in the months to come. We can accept that the Commission will be dealing with current affairs because after 31 October, it should be dealing with current affairs. We need action and we need action urgently. Therefore, Mr Reinfeldt, President of the Council, my invitation to you is to initiate, as fast as possible, the procedure for the nomination of the Commission.
Three weeks ago, we voted for the President of the Commission with the argument that the current crisis does not allow us to postpone a decision. That was your argument. So the same argument applies now to the nomination of the Commission. It is not necessary to wait: a new Commission is possible with the present treaty, with the present status for the High Representative and then, once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, you can smoothly install a High Representative with another statute and a President of the Council. There is really no reason to wait to proceed with the Commission.
This was also the aim of the President of the Commission if I understood him correctly when he spoke a few minutes ago. I fear that I hear you saying ‘No, I am waiting; I am waiting because I want a global package, a global package including the President of the Council’. I say that is not a problem: prepare your global package. Prepare it now, and the decision on the Council President can be as political as the decision that you took on Mr Barroso the first time. You presented him as a candidate by a political decision, not a formal decision, because we asked to formalise it afterwards. You can do exactly the same with the President of the Council and then, once the Treaty is ratified, you can formalise the whole package. Then you change the statute of the High Representative: he becomes Vice-President of the Commission. At the same time, the political decision that you take on the President of the Council now can be put into practice; you can then formalise it.
That is the best way, the best pressure that you can put on those other countries that have to sign: formalise it, because they know that we want to go forward. And we still do not have to wait for several weeks and months. In any case, you have said that there is no time to waste. I agree with you: there is no time to waste with this current economic and financial crisis.
Put the Commission together now, as fast as possible. Convince your colleagues in the Council and take your decision on the High Representative on the basis of the present Treaty. Pick one of the candidates – I have seen there are enough candidates – for the President of the Council and go forward with it."@en1
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