Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-07-Speech-3-073"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091007.17.3-073"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is not my intention to meddle in the internal affairs of Ireland and I acknowledge the right of Irish politicians to allow as many votes on this treaty as they see fit and, of course, I also respect the result of this referendum, just as I respected the result of last year’s referendum, which produced an opposite result. I do not know which result has greater value or greater validity, and perhaps my Irish colleagues could advise me on this, but nonetheless, one thing that I can weigh up is how it looks from the outside and how the whole atmosphere surrounding ratification of the Lisbon Treaty looks from the outside and unfortunately, I have to say that the image is appalling. I lived the first 26 years of my life under a regime which did not allow free elections, where it was not possible to have free elections, and where there could be only one possible election result. I am very much afraid that the only possible or conceivable result regarding Lisbon Treaty ratification was and is ‘yes’ in the minds of many people in this chamber and elsewhere in the EU and they will not accept or allow any other result.
I also wonder why there is so much uproar and so much political pressure over the Lisbon Treaty since the EU would not fall apart or collapse without it, after all, but would carry on operating on the basis of existing agreements. In this case, I would say that we are witnessing a full-blown example of realpolitik or power politics which has little to do with a more democratic Europe or a better-functioning or more transparent EU and a lot to do with the new redrawn power relations in the EU. I say this without bitterness because I have been in politics long enough to know what realpolitik is, but let us at least not lie to ourselves.
Who will benefit from the Lisbon Treaty? It will be the European Commission, so I am not surprised that the Commission is a major backer. It will be the European Parliament, so I am not surprised that many in this chamber back the treaty. It will also be several of the powerful states in the EU and federalists in all of the groupings, be it the European People’s Party, the Party of European Socialists or the Party of European Liberals. My biggest fear, however, is that an approach such as this, embodying as it does the principle of ‘the end justifies the means’, will turn against us all and that we will witness a counter-reaction in the years ahead and that the pressure to approve the Lisbon Treaty will provoke a backlash in the form of rising support for the real anti-Europeans, for extremists, xenophobes and anti-European forces, and that this will be a Pyrrhic victory."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples