Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-14-Speech-2-051"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-09-14"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Statement by Mr Prodi2
dcterms:Language	"sv"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19990914.1.2-051"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-09-14-Speech-2-0522
lpv:speaker	lp:Astrid Thors2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 chair; Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-09-13--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Svenska folkpartiet (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 substitute; Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; PETI (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; Conference of Delegation Chairs (1999-09-13--2002-01-14)3 member_of_the_bureau; ELDR (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, honourable Commissioners-designate, I have to say that I feel sorry for you in a way. You will not be having any honeymoon period because we are all waiting impatiently for you to begin work on the task in hand and for us, together, to begin working for Europe. So I do not think you’re going to be getting any honeymoon period, as new colleagues and new bodies usually do. In general, I take a positive view of your programme and of what you have put forward already and today. There are, however, three things I should like to ask you to consider. I perceive that there is something of the “emperor’s new clothes” about the Codes of Conduct you have adopted for the new Commission. The question I am asking is what distinguishes them from the rules which applied to the old Commission. This is not robust legislation we have here. The rules do not take account of citizens or of citizens’ rights. Where are the hard and fast rules and the citizen’s perspective upon things? Secondly, Mr Prodi used the word glasnost today. Coming from Finland, I am familiar with a number of Russian jokes. There’s a Russian joke about a number of Presidents and Soviet leaders travelling by train, and the punchline includes the very words glasnost and Gorbachev. One sign of glasnost is that nothing happens. There is openness but nothing else. I do not think we shall be talking in the future about any spirit of glasnost in Europe because it is synonymous with nothing happening. Thirdly, I would draw your attention to the fact that you must look again at your staff of advisers. If you have the same staff of advisers in the new Commission as in the old, there is in fact a risk of precisely the same errors being committed as, for example, by the previous Commission in its relations with Parliament. You should have a shake-up of the advisers who are closest to your colleagues in the Commission. Finally, I want to say a few words to Mr Swoboda. I agreed entirely with him when he said that we must be careful about how we judge the individual Commissioners in future. We did not get it right with the previous Commission. In fact, it was in particular the Commissioners-designate from smaller countries who were questioned the hardest. This is not an honourable way of looking into just how responsible individual Commissioners-designate are."@en1

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