Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-06-Speech-3-015-000"
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"en.20110706.2.3-015-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr Tusk, on behalf of the European Conservatives and Reformists, I would like to say that we very much want the Polish Presidency to be a success, because we believe that it can bring fresh energy to the somewhat stuffy atmosphere of the European institutions. There is here, however, a certain problem. Your government, Mr Tusk, has decided that during the Polish Presidency, parliamentary elections will be held in Poland. This means that your cabinet will not see out the Presidency. We will meet in December for the review of the Presidency, but with a different government. Irrespective of who will then be Prime Minister, one way or another, it will be a different government. Besides, we know that during election campaigns, all cabinets only run at idle speed. I fear that in the case of the Polish Presidency, the same may happen again. I hope, too, Mr Tusk, that you will not give in to the temptation, although such voices are to be heard in Poland in the government camp, to limit democratic debate using the argument that whoever criticises the government during the Presidency harms both the country and Europe. Mr Tusk, I would like to remind you that silencing political competitors is not approved of in Europe.
There is one more thing – your ministers are saying that the Polish Presidency will want to promote integration and strengthen our sense of community. That is all very well, but what does it mean in practice? We are seeing two forms of political arrogance in Europe. One of them is the movement towards a federal, post-national Europe, and that arrogance is provoking the anger of millions of people who live in our continent and who have had enough of social engineering. The second form of arrogance is the conviction of the strongest countries, principally Germany and France, that it is they who should be wielding authority in Europe. This arrogance provokes the anger of many of my fellow Members of this Parliament, from both the Left and the Right.
We in the ECR Group are Eurorealists, and we believe that Europe’s strength lies in the freedom, enterprise and culture of Europe’s nations and states. We believe that you will contribute in some way to a weakening of these forms of arrogance, and that your efforts will mean, on the one hand, that we will no longer be threatened with the closure of states and the top-down creation of a European demos and, on the other, that you will bring about a reduction of the feeling in Europe that there is a difference between those who are equal and those who are more equal. This, Mr Tusk, will be a real European test of leadership. Will you take up the challenge as a strong Presidency of the Union, or will you content yourself with what is easy, agreeable and painless, but which is also of no significance? Will you be long remembered as a resolute leader, or will you be forgotten as a politician of safe conformity?"@en1
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