Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-02-Speech-3-090"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000202.6.3-090"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"My colleagues, Mrs Frassoni and Mr Onesta have already spoken, somewhat sceptically, about some aspects of the matter in hand. I wish to add a voice of concern on the topic of subsidiarity, not just between Union and Member States but between Member States and their own internally self-governing regions. This has been given inadequate attention and there are many things to be concerned about.
May I particularly draw attention to one of the implications of enlargement in respect of this Parliament. A ceiling of 700 has been prescribed as the maximum that Parliament can safely become and remain a deliberative assembly. If you apply the existing principle of digressive proportionality, six seats for every state and then one more seat for every half a million inhabitants, you already have the situation where Luxembourg with 367,000 people has more Members in this Chamber than Wales, which is a partly self-governing region of the United Kingdom. Scotland, with a population of 5 million, has eight seats in this House at the moment; Denmark and Finland, with the same population, have sixteen.
Now what is going to happen if we retain a ceiling of 700, bring in 26% more population over time, and then adopt the Commission’s, I think ill-considered, proposition, that there should be a European list of candidates. What will happen to a place like Scotland, which I represent here? It will become totally invisible!
Members of this House should not in these circumstances be in the least surprised that in these discussions, people in Scotland and other such countries are asking whether enlargement should not also take the form of admitting new Member States from within existing ones. A growing body of opinion in Scotland holds that view."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples