Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-03-Speech-2-016"
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"en.20001003.2.2-016"2
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"Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, ten years after German reunification, which marked the end of the cold war and to which our institution actively contributed, we find ourselves at a new crossroads. This phrase is no platitude: we now have to find a solution which definitively unifies Europe and confronts globalisation.
Secondly, with regard to the method, we have not discovered the philosopher’s stone, but we have realised that this method is democratic, because it is public, transparent, and is allowing the citizens and civil society to follow what we are doing in real time. The truth is that, after listening to the report of the President-in-Office of the Council on the development of the Intergovernmental Conference – he has said it with the discretion and elegance worthy of the Presidency, especially if it is French, but he has said that we are in a situation of total stalemate, and has used the term ‘paradox’ – I ask myself: could we not apply the Convention method to the Intergovernmental Conferences?
That is a very fundamental question which would resolve many of our problems. Because in the Intergovernmental Conferences – and we all know this from what they tell us and we have two representatives who are showing great patience – the representatives are limited to following instructions so that the leaders, at the end, simply negotiate during the last five minutes, which produces the type of Treaties which we have, which are completely incomprehensible, even to the initiated.
I therefore believe that there is a second message which we must direct at our governments when they meet in Biarritz and in Nice, and that is that the next Intergovernmental Conference, even this one, could be replaced with the Convention method.
Thirdly, in relation to the President of the Commission’s comments on the future, I agree on one basic idea: at a time when, unfortunately, there is a debate in which there is talk of a constitution, of federalism, in which we have our Heads of State – tomorrow we will have President Ciampi – making grandiose claims for the future of Europe, I must say that the Heads of State and Government say many things in favour of Europe in public which they appear to resolve in private. Well, at least they say them, I suppose.
Mr President of the Commission, it is true that we have to construct for the future on the basis of the present. And at present we have an interinstitutional triangle. We completely agree on this and also on the fact that we have to try to take advantage of that triangle. I believe that President Prodi has understood this, because, if I am not mistaken, he was at the Amsterdam Summit where the High Representative for external policy was created. We learn from our mistakes. Now I see that he is arguing for a progressive integration of something which Parliament, at that time, argued for before Amsterdam.
With regard to the second example he has given – economic policy – he said something very important. In the Treaties there is a very clear definition of the competence of the Commission in this field. I tell you this, on behalf of my Group: President Prodi, you must act, because it is essential that, as well as the European Central Bank, there is economic leadership in the Union and that does not mean that the Treaties need to be amended.
Madam President, I must end. We are surely heading for a creative crisis in the Union. I believe that, if there is a clear will to resolve the problems, while thinking of our citizens, transparently and publicly, according to Community methods, we will finally end up doing something which was asked of us in this very House by a leader with enormous moral authority: President Havel told us that we needed a clear constitution which we could explain to our children.
We have listened attentively to the report of the President-in-Office of the Council and also the excellent speech of the President of the Commission, who is today returning from his summer break, and I believe that this should, to a certain extent, set the pace for our institutions, because a year ago the investiture of the Commission took place and now we have to hold a debate on the crossroads we are facing and the future of Europe. I would say that the issue can be summed up as having to reform in order to enlarge, and also so that our institutions might function properly. Nor must we forget that we also have to govern jointly in order to deal with the problems and aspirations of the European citizens.
I believe that that can finally help us to guide the future of Europe.
The Biarritz Summit is about to take place and I must say, on behalf of my Group and of my political family, the Party of European Socialists, that we consider the work carried out by the Convention on the Charter of Fundamental Rights to be a success in terms of what it has achieved and also in terms of the method it has used. I wish publicly to express my gratitude for the work carried out not only by our fellow Members in the Convention, presided over by Mr Méndez de Vigo, but also by all those who have participated, even during the summer, in this work, which has had a good gestation period, since it has lasted nine months.
On the eve of the Biarritz Summit, it is important that the Charter is approved by the Council. Why? Because we must give substance to European citizenship. We need to ensure that the demands we made in the Treaty on European Union ten years ago are translated into clear and concrete action. Furthermore – and this has been the important work in the final stage of the Charter – to ensure that its content is progressive and that it extends not only to personal freedoms but also to economic and social rights. This content has been achieved at the end of the work on the Charter.
Madam President, I believe that the Charter currently sends an important message to our citizens and also to the candidate countries. In relation to the debate on enlargement to follow, my Group believes that it is important for us to send a positive message to these countries.
When producing a resolution of 120 sections, the first thing we have to say is that we want the whole of the enlargement process to be carried out in a clear and transparent way, dealing with its needs, but at a sustained pace. It is important that this Parliament sends the message that it is essential to set the timetable at the European Council in Nice, which needs to be successful.
Secondly, the Charter is also important given the dangerous tendencies which are emerging in the Union, leading to populism, a lack of solidarity and xenophobia. I really do not understand – I am now addressing the President-in-Office of the Council – why, when for once we have done something really good and which we are all pleased with, we are going to put the Charter on the back burner after Nice.
I am not asking for it to be included directly in the Treaties but, while we are discussing Articles 6 and 7, we must affirm our community of values. It is very difficult to explain to our voters that we have done a good job, which we are all very pleased about, but that we are going to put it off until a later date. I believe that the Council and the governments must give serious consideration to what must be the frontispiece to our Union. And that is the Charter of Fundamental Rights."@en1
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