Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-15-Speech-1-093"
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"en.19991115.7.1-093"2
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"Mr President, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the Commissioner this evening for her promise. 1 January 2000 is very close indeed, and a certain strategy has already been put in place by her predecessor for keeping an eye on what is happening as regards the European plc. It is clear that something needs to be done about this. I am delighted that the Commissioner has taken this so well. Indeed, I think, as far as this is concerned, that we must go further from 1 January onwards. I should also add that with this strategy, it has been the case before that we have lost sight of the fact that the European plc has to be voted on with unanimity, whilst this is a directive requiring majority voting. We may well speed up in the long run by putting this directive back on track, rather than continuing endlessly with the European plc. This may be an unnecessary consideration but I do think that we achieved our purpose tonight. We have made some progress.
Mr President, of course it is not the Commissioner who is keeping a low profile – although they tried to play down the fact that nothing has been submitted yet, but that has now been addressed as far as I am concerned – rather it is the Council itself. Then we have to shift our attention to the somewhat mysterious Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr Blair. Mr Blair who would very much like to join forces with Europe, yet is trying to stop Europe from bringing this issue to a satisfactory conclusion. This is the problem we are facing, Mr President. In all manner of ways, using traditional politburo tactics, attempts are even being made to thwart debate on this directive, that is people expressing their opinions as to the content. Surely, this is not something we should expect to happen. I can only say, Mr President, that the Blair administration and some other socialist governments are so frightened to admit how little they are prepared to do for the employee, that they cannot cope with this in debate, as they used to, but have to resort to all kinds of underhand politburo tactics. This must end and I am really pleased that this has been highlighted this evening in this debate in one way or another."@en1
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