Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-13-Speech-2-516-000"
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"en.20110913.41.2-516-000"2
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"Mr President, behind the rather clumsy title lies an issue of huge importance both for the institutions of the European Union and for the citizens of Europe. My report focuses on how European law is implemented and applied in the Member States. This is the European legislation that we in this House spend a huge amount of time, resources and commitment on drawing up and adopting. If this legislation is ultimately not taken seriously in the Member States, the work that we do is a waste of time. A Parliament which does not take itself seriously and does not check whether the rules that it has helped to enact are being implemented would be in an absurd situation.
The Treaties provide a proven method of doing this in the form of the Commission, which is the guardian of the Treaties, and which is supposed to monitor the process of applying and implementing European law, including initiating proceedings for failure to fulfil an obligation when no agreement can be reached with the Member State in question. This concerns, for example, questions such as the recognition of professional qualifications, which can be very important for the future of individual citizens, or environmental issues and matters relating to the ownership of land and property. These are all things which affect the citizens of Europe directly.
The Commission generally acts on the basis of a complaint submitted by a complainant. These citizens who make complaints are, ultimately, and this is very important to me, our early-warning system, which indicates to us that things are going wrong with the application of European legislation in the Member States and which should allow us to take corrective action. For this reason, the complainants play a central role in the entire process. Citizens must have a genuine opportunity to raise complaints and to obtain information about the response made to these complaints and whether there will be consequences and, if not, why not. We are required to do this under our obligation to ensure transparency, under the terms of the Treaties and on the basis of our respect for the citizens of Europe.
For example, if we had responded rapidly, consistently and strongly to the issue of waste disposal in Campania, we would have been able, in my opinion, to avoid some of the consequences of the situation there in recent years.
My report also calls into question the activities of the so-called EU Pilot project, where the Commission unfortunately does not always adequately fulfil its obligation to provide information to complainants in the case of a complaint and prefers to negotiate with the Member States behind the scenes. This leaves the citizens who make the complaints out in the cold without any information. That is unacceptable. For this reason, we have included a proposal in my report which allows for at least a partial codification of this process, with fixed deadlines and obligations to provide information. This is clearly in line with the provisions of the Treaties. It does not restrict the Commission in any way, but instead gives it support.
Finally, I would like to make it clear that, in times of increasing euroscepticism, responding to complaints made by citizens and a transparent process for handling these complaints are more important than ever. I believe that we need to take this into consideration, with all the consequences that it involves."@en1
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