Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-14-Speech-2-014"
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"en.20001114.2.2-014"2
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".
Madam President, Mr President-in-Office, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, one of the main tasks of the directly-elected members of the European Parliament, which represents the 370 million citizens of the European Union, is to bring the unifying structure of Europe closer to its people. That is why it was so important and why Parliament was right not only to invest so much hope in a new Charter of Fundamental Rights for the European Union but also to help so intensively and constructively to bring it about.
It is a huge feather in this institution's cap – as is the fact that the groups stood side by side here – that we managed to secure 16 places for European Parliament representatives at the fundamental rights convention. The result before us is proof positive of the fact that giving the European Parliament a say was the right move.
Allow me at this point to offer my warmest thanks and acknowledgement to those who represented us at the convention under the leadership of our fellow member, Mr Méndez de Vigo. Ladies and gentlemen – and I mean everyone involved from the European Parliament – made a decisive contribution; as a result, the difficult instructions of the Cologne European Council were carried out successfully in a very short space of time and with the maximum possible attention. I should like on behalf of our group to offer express thanks not only to all the members of our group but, most of all, to Vice-President Ingo Friedrich, who coordinated our work. But our special thanks must go to all the members of the convention, especially its chairman, former president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Roman Herzog, to whom I should like at this point to wish a speedy recovery.
With the exception of the British delegation, our group unanimously supports the Charter. The draft before us is a balanced text which has already been applauded on all sides as an example of European consensus. Obviously, the Charter will not please everyone. No compromise can. But Europe will only progress and find its feet if we are all prepared to help bring about a good result. And that is what has happened with the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights has drawn on a multitude of European and national legal sources. It pays homage to the spiritual, religious and moral heritage of our continent and to the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity. The Charter presented to us is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. By placing the individual, people as individuals, at the heart of its activities, by establishing the citizenship of the union and by creating an area of freedom, security and justice, the Charter creates comprehensive transparency. It clearly sets out our citizens' rights for them and clearly sets out the legal positions which the institutions, bodies and agencies of the European Union must comply with and respect when acting on behalf of the people of Europe.
The Charter before us is, to my mind, a huge success and may, as I read in one of the European broadsheets on 26 September 2000, become the calling card for Europe. As I pointed out during discussions on how to handle the Charter henceforth during the plenary debate on the Biarritz EU summit of 3 October this year, what is at issue now is the future of the European Union from this point on.
In saying yes, we are instructing you, Madam President, to proclaim the Charter with the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission at the EU summit in Nice in a few weeks' time. Although, in our view, even this solemn act in Nice cannot but be a step along the way. The European Union has long been more than an economic community. If we, as the representatives and trustees of the citizens of the European Union and of Europe as a whole, wish to continue with the unification of our continent in an ambitious and committed manner, then the solemn proclamation cannot but be a first step along the way. We in the European People's Party are jointly and firmly committed to including the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Treaties as quickly as possible so that it can become a Charter of direct and unassailable rights for the people of the European Union.
Mr President-in-Office, you have taken a stand here and I hear what you are saying but let me say quite clearly on behalf of the European People's Party that we expect an ambitious result from Nice – an ambitious result on the conditions for enlargement of the European Union and an ambitious result for the Charter, which is why I again call on the Presidency of the Council, on behalf of the members of the European People's Party, to ensure that a timetable is drawn up for transposing the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the EU Treaties. I wish the French Presidency every success here. If you are successful, it will be a joint success for the European Parliament and all the people in the European Union."@en1
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