Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-14-Speech-2-016"
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"en.19990914.1.2-016"2
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"Madam President, Mr President-designate of the Commission, the European Union finds itself in an important historical phase in its development. A lasting order of peace in South-East Europe, the accession of central European states to the European Union, dialogue and partnership between the cultures in the Mediterranean area situated between the European Union and Arabic and Islamic states are just a few of the challenges which demand a strong Europe. That is why we need a Commission which is in a position to act.
However, improvements are necessary. The Parliament should already now be discussing in its standing committee whether it might not be sensible to include a procedural process in its Rules of Procedure so as to avoid, in the next hearings, the difficulties and problems which have cropped up in the present ones.
Over the last few months, the impression has arisen that the European Union is characterised by maladministration, fraud, nepotism and scandals. This impression is unjustified overall. The large majority of European officials produce good, first-class work, and these officials are entitled to be supported, thanked and acknowledged by ourselves in the European Parliament.
But where there are undesirable developments, in fact even criminal acts, we must confront these thoroughly and decisively. The Commission and the European Parliament have the same task of promoting and reinforcing confidence in the European institutions. Madam President, Mr President-designate of the Commission and Commission-designate, the Group of the European People’s Party and European Democrats will make their decision this evening, partly in the light of the answers which we are still awaiting from the President-designate of the Commission. Our group will make this decision with a very great sense of responsibility for establishing a Europe which is capable of acting; that is to say, a European Union which is capable of acting and which is bound by the principles of transparency, democracy and parliamentarianism, a European Union to which people can give their consent. All this in the light of the present century’s experiences on the threshold of the year 2000 and in the light of what is being experienced right now in former Yugoslavia. We must continue building the European Union and strengthening it so that people can accept it as a community of law, a community of freedom, a community of peace in the 21st century.
At the July part-session of Parliament, Romano Prodi spoke of the Commission as a kind of government. If this expression is adopted – and I personally am sympathetic to its being so – then this government (that is to say, the Commission) is answerable to the European Parliament. This means that the period of ignoring the European Parliament must now finally be over.
We support a new culture of relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission. On 2 September, I made five demands of the Commission-designate. The Group of the European People’s Party and European Democrats welcomes the fact that, on 7 September, at the Conference of Presidents, the President-designate of the Commission provided a satisfactory response to these demands, and he has just now referred to this.
Firstly, the timetable of the Parliament and of its Committees and, therefore, the presence of the Commission in the Parliament, are to take precedence over all other obligations of the European Commission. Secondly, requests by Parliament to the Commission to set out legislative proposals are to be complied with as far as possible. Thirdly, a vote of no-confidence against a Member of the Commission is to be reason enough for the President of the Commission to seriously consider dismissing him. Fourthly, constructive dialogue and regular consultation are to take place with the European Parliament about reform of the Commission. Fifthly, Parliament and the Commission are to support comprehensive institutional reform in anticipation of the Intergovernmental Conference.
The Group of the European People’s Party and European Democrats will take care to ensure that these obligations entered into by the Commission are adhered to word for word. We trust Romano Prodi to keep his word. However, we also expect every future Member of the European Commission to accept as his own duty the obligation entered into by the President-designate of the Commission and, if he does not, then there will be repercussions.
If it is called to office tomorrow, the Commission-designate takes up its tasks with a number of deficits. We ought not even today to conceal this fact. In appointing the Members of the Commission, the President-designate was not always granted the room for manoeuvre specified by treaty. There remains a structural, democratic deficit in the fact that the result of the elections to the European Parliament has still not been taken into account in the political composition of the Commission. In the interests of democracy in the European Union, this ought not to be repeated.
Our group does not place party political interests above the interests of the European Union. But there are still questions, even serious doubts, about a number of Members-designate of the Commission, especially about the Member of the Commission assigned to research policy. Partly in view of the discussion in which we are still now engaged, we would ask you, Professor Prodi, to let us have a satisfactory answer, both in your résumé and also tomorrow. We are not uncritical with regard to ourselves or to the European Parliament. The hearings, which have been an important contribution to more transparency and openness, were, all in all, a success. Critics should consider that there is nothing comparable at a national level."@en1
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