Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-12-Speech-1-141-000"
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"en.20120312.19.1-141-000"2
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"Mr President, there are some colleagues in the room who have been pointing at me and gesturing as other comments have been made regarding the United Kingdom’s position on this.
Can I start off by saying, first of all, my very sincere thanks to our colleague Mr Lechner for the tremendous amount of hard work that he has put into this dossier over a period of about two years or so? I thank him for everything he has done in making sure that he has made his contribution and I wish him well for whatever he chooses to do after he leaves us. He is going to be missed.
Can I also echo the comments that were made by Mr Lechner about the timing of debates that take place in this House? This debate is significantly overrunning. No fault of yours, Mr President, but the fact of the matter is I was due to meet with Mr Lidington, the United Kingdom Minister for Europe, this evening. This was one of the issues I wanted to discuss with him. That is not now going to happen.
Can I also express my real disappointment at the decision in the Council whereby the UK and Ireland found themselves in a position where they did not feel they were able to opt into this regulation?
I have always said that the lack of an opt-in is always going to be very theoretical because the practical effects will remain and will be very real for many EU citizens. For instance, more than 15% of successions that have been carried out in the United Kingdom had a cross-border element: 3.1% of the UK population comes from another EU Member State and I consider that the failure to resolve the issue of clawback is a fundamental flaw in the final regulation as it will close off its benefits to a huge number of citizens from other Member States who happen to be living in the UK and Ireland, and conversely the large numbers of expat UK citizens spread throughout Europe.
I note that there remain concerns within delegations in the Council regarding other aspects of the regulation such as the provisions relating to administration. Practices vary widely across the European Union in this area, and we must consider whether the final article agreed between Parliament and Council will meet the needs of citizens and practitioners from all Member States.
May I suggest finally that a second reading, even if very short, would allow us a period to refocus and approach the difficulties that still remain with a freshness of mind, because quite clearly it is in the interests of all of us, this House and the Commission, to see if we can resolve the difficulties that we set out to resolve at the outset."@en1
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