Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-13-Speech-4-011-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120913.6.4-011-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today, we can take a crucial step in the direction of more democracy in Europe, as democracy is based on the idea that politics should not take place behind closed doors or in back rooms, but instead that that which is discussed and decided in politics must be transparent, accessible to the public, that the citizens and their elected representatives can follow what happens, that they can legitimate and monitor the decisions taken in politics.
That is something that the citizens expect of us as Parliament, very specifically. That is the mandate with which they entrusted us in the elections. Under the new Treaty, Parliament now has the ability, and thus also the obligation, to monitor and co-advise on the politics of the European Union – and that also covers the conduction of negotiations by the Council, including, for example, in the area of international agreements. We can only do that, however, if we have the relevant information. Sadly, that is very often not the case at the moment. You will remember numerous debates here in Parliament and amongst the public. As an example, I will just cite the major subject of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), where we had to negotiate on far-reaching international agreements without having all the documents available to us, without being really able to judge what exactly had been agreed and with what intentions.
That needs to change, and it will do as a result of this agreement, which we, Parliament, have concluded through exhaustive negotiations with the Council. The matter at hand was that we should have access to all such documents in future, and how and under what conditions that would be realised. The documents in question are not only negotiation documents in the sense of negotiations that have already been concluded. Relevant documents also include those concerning the planning for negotiations, strategic drafts. These are internal documents, confidential documents. Other documents involved include secret and top secret documents, for which reason it was necessary for us to agree a step-by-step procedure in this agreement for how such documents would be handled.
We were able, however, to get to a situation where, for example, all confidential documents are available to the Members of this House without special security checks. In the case of highly confidential, top secret documents and similar, special procedures are necessary.
There is one thing that I would like to say to my fellow Members, and that is that knowledge is power. Parliament needs this knowledge if it is to keep a check on the Council. It is also necessary, however, for us to behave responsibly with the knowledge that we acquire in this way. Not every piece of information that is made available to us in this way is one that we can and may use in connection with the outside world. I am sure that my fellow Members are aware of this. It is in any event necessary, however, and it is a very important step in the development of European democracy that Parliament has now reached an agreement of this kind not only with the Commission, but also with the Council, and will now have access to these documents.
We want to know what the EU does, for example, in the negotiations on the world trade agreement, on climate change, on bilateral trade agreements, and so on. What are the negotiating lines? What are the objectives being pursued in the negotiations? We want to, we have to and we will get involved in that regard on behalf of the citizens.
Let me say one more thing in conclusion. We are by no means finished with this subject. At the moment, for example, we are negotiating about the law concerning commissions of inquiry where this House wants to investigate where there have been incidents of abuse and misdemeanours. Once again, we have the same problem with the Council, but also with the Member States, in that they do not want to grant us direct access to essential documents, in that we are denied access to certain witnesses and other things besides. We need to work hard to obtain that on behalf of and in the interests of the citizens and in the name of democracy. Otherwise, we cannot perform our important function for the citizens here.
Today, however, we can record a great step forward. I would like to thank all those involved for their collaboration, and I wish the agreement good luck."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples