Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-15-Speech-3-045"
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"en.19990915.5.3-045"2
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"Madam President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, in fact, in these matters of European policy on rights, even with reference to the considerations for a Charter of Fundamental Rights, we have entered a decisive phase of the development of the European Union. We all know that this concerns questions which have to do with the core area of national sovereignty. For this reason we must be mindful of the fact that many Member States have difficulties with this.
On the other hand, it must be seen that in the meantime a process of development has taken place in the European Union, with a European agreement on rights and with the responsibilities of the European institutions. This should put an end to inconsistency, which has its starting point in the wrangling about competence among the institutions at different levels.
This means nothing other than that, with the transfer, for sensible reasons, of responsibilities to a given level, the legal obligations and responsibilities of parliamentary co-operation and decision-making rights on this same level must also be connected because otherwise a legal vacuum is created where Parliament is not present. In this crucial area of the law, involving not only the protection of citizens with regard to the outside world, but also the protection of citizens against state institutions, a situation whereby protection from incorrect executive measures and corresponding control in the interest of the citizens is not provided must not be allowed.
For this reason, it is extraordinarily important to close this gap. It is not just a question of general matters which may crop up in future, instead I would like to expressly challenge the Council, because of current developments to do with refugees and asylum, to introduce majority decision on these matters of the scheduled period of five years, by simple resolution of the Council, and with the automatic consequence also envisaged there, i.e. the co-decision rights of the European Parliament.
I would also like to mention the matter of fundamental rights. I find that the Cologne resolution to establish a Charter of Fundamental Rights is of unusually great significance. But it does have limited legal validity. In time, we must achieve a situation where the citizen may present claims on the ground of fundamental rights at the European level if European administrative and legislative procedures go against his interests. But the crucial issue in what has been put forward in Cologne is the method, i.e. not having national governments prepare such things any longer but having a sort of convention in which national parliaments, the European Parliament and governments are represented.
Madam President-in-Office of the Council, there is a tremendous opportunity here, if we are successful, to find the right composition for this convention, with the appropriate participation of the European Parliament, which must be equal in proportion to the other two areas. From experience with this operation it may then perhaps be possible using this method at some point, in the interests of the citizen, to lay down the main cornerstones of the process of European unification.
This is not just a matter of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but rather a rehearsal in the new meeting procedures between national parliaments, national administrations and the European Parliament, which can provide the European Union with great legitimacy for these cornerstones.
Please, do not get too caught up in these less important, self-interested aspects, but rather see this great opportunity. Our first concern here is the Charter alone. In Tampere, then, you should be generous and allocate the European Parliament the number of seats which will enable it to legitimise this body."@en1
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