Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-15-Speech-3-156"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not intend this to be a very long speech. I believe that the debate we have had here today is an extremely important one, and that the various concerns that have been expressed in relation to the various reports have raised some interesting questions. Some of these questions have been raised in a rather polemic way, in other cases contradictions have been highlighted. In some cases there has been agreement with the form but probably not with the content. In any case, I think that these four reports are, overall, extremely important and that they raise highly topical issues for all of us, especially at a time when the European Union, both internally and as regards its role on the world stage, is endeavouring to highlight and give substance to a fundamental set of values which will ultimately act as a catalyst for its own political union. We believe that it is impossible to achieve deepening of the European Union if we are not willing, amongst ourselves, to guarantee a common set of principles and to ensure that these principles also form the essential basis of our own external presence.
I have referred to our external presence and to the internal dimension. A great deal has been said today, either directly or indirectly, about the stance adopted towards Austria. This was sometimes expressed in a rather emotional way, I might even say in an understandably emotional way, on the part of individuals linked with that country. As the Portuguese Presidency, that is the Portuguese Prime Minister, acted as a channel for the position that 14 countries of the European Union expressed as regards their bilateral relations with Austria, I would like to be very clear about the following point: we do not have any criticism to make about how Austria has behaved at international level, and in particular about how Austria has fulfilled its duties and obligations within the European Union. Austria has undeniably been a country that has met its European Union obligations.
But we have to recognise one thing that has a significant bearing on how we view the European Union: we are all Austrian citizens. Today, in the European Union, citizenship means European citizenship. An Austrian citizen is a Portuguese citizen. A Portuguese citizen is an Austrian citizen. There is no such thing as a domestic issue when certain ideologies and certain political forces propagate and advocate a certain type of ideology, even if they may subsequently retreat, for tactical reasons, from positions they have adopted. This cannot be viewed as a matter of indifference to the other countries.
We are now operating within a European area, a common area within which we regard ourselves as being bound by a basic set of principles, many of which are highlighted in the reports before us here. We need to look at these issues from a European perspective, and we cannot keep using subsidiarity as an excuse to say that these are national issues and that this amounts to interference in the internal affairs of a particular country. That simply is not true. As I have already said, Austria’s internal affairs are also the European Union’s internal affairs. When we advocate the need for political life in Austria to be in accordance with the values and principles promoted by the European Union, and which Austria has also undertaken to promote at European Union level, we are not trying to interfere in Member States’ internal affairs. Apart from any emotional issues and, of course, apart from the reactions that situations like this can engender, we believe that there is a need for mature reflection on the significance of this act, which we should point out was bilateral and which, let there be no mistake about this, is a precautionary political act. We believe that political precautions of this kind are possibly the best way of warding off future problems, and in particular the ghosts from the past that may return to haunt us in Europe.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, with regard to external relations, we believe that the European Union now has a solid set of values which the deepening process is bound to improve, particularly by means of these reports. There are naturally some controversial issues in this area, and people may see things in various different lights in different areas. Whilst we all oppose racism, and I think that is a statement everyone in this Chamber will accept, I am not so sure that we can all reach agreement in practice on concrete measures to combat racism. And although we may all say that we oppose xenophobia, I am not sure if we can all agree on active steps to integrate foreign citizens into the European Union and accept measures to protect the interests of foreign citizens within the European Union. And there is going to be an interesting test of this, in the form of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of citizens of the European Union.
If there is a will within the Union to extend this charter to foreign citizens living within the European Union, we will be giving a signal that we are starting our action against xenophobia by putting our own house in order, with measures that we ourselves have decided to implement at internal political level. Furthermore, as regards antidiscrimination and the various forms of discrimination identified in the various reports, a great many differing measures obviously exist. And we know that even when it comes to internal legislation within our Member States, there are major differences in the way some of these questions are dealt with. However, I also think that the way these issues are being raised in this House, and the way these reports are helping us to reflect on these problems, represent a shake-up in our collective thinking and are an important factor in helping us to further intensify the debate on these issues. This is a task not just for governments, but also for non-governmental organisations, for social lobbies and for political lobbies. We need to keep this question on our agenda, and that is the rationale and the significance of this debate.
Finally, I would like to conclude this speech by drawing attention to the set of measures already adopted in the Council of the European Union and the various Community actions it has implemented. The measures that have been developed include a set of initiatives connected with the European Year against Racism in 1997. I would also like to highlight a very important aspect which we have probably not yet fully taken into account: the role of the new Treaty of Amsterdam in this area. It was not easy to reach a consensus: when we were negotiating the Treaty of Amsterdam, and I took part in those negotiations, it was not easy to reach a consensus on including the various measures now covered in Articles 6 and 7. Our present experience suggests that it would probably be advisable to improve these provisions, that is to improve these articles. We shall see whether, in the course of the Intergovernmental Conference, we can achieve a consensus that will allow us to make further progress on this matter.
However, I would also like to draw attention to an initiative that will, symbolically, take place in Vienna on 8 April – the launch of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia. This will be a very important body, and I believe that it will also be very important to secure everyone’s cooperation in encouraging an effective fight against racism and xenophobia in the European Union. This essentially represents what we might call the “ethical pillar” of the Union. I am talking about a Union of principles and a Union that we have to strengthen – there will not be a political Union in the future if we cannot guarantee that these principles are shared by the great majority of the Community."@en1
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