Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-14-Speech-2-025"
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"en.20001114.2.2-025"2
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"I want to add my congratulations and thanks to Mr Méndez de Vigo and all those who worked on it. I not only thank them but envy them. An extraordinarily fine job has been done.
We have a text here which states concisely what Europe is about and states what rights we uphold as citizens of this great Union. I am sad, indeed, to see the ranks of British Conservatives have lined up against the idea of making the institutions of the Union answerable to breaches of the rights of the citizens of the Union. It is a sad thing that the party of Churchill and Maxwell Fyfe should have come to this point that, when we at last try to ensure that the institutions of the Union are not the tyrants of Brussels but persons subject under Article 51 to the obligations binding on all institutions of the Union, the British Conservatives say "no".
I am not sure yet, because I have not heard from them, how far Mr Blair's hounds will be let free from the leash to speak out for this brilliant project. I hope that Mr Martin, who did such a fine job in helping at this convention, will be persuading his colleagues that the time has come not merely to adopt this Charter but to make it part of our law, binding upon those who govern us, not merely a proclamation but a binding part of the Treaties. Perhaps the best we can do for the time being is get it mentioned in Article 6 but that will only be for starters.
It is not a perfect document; we all know it is not a perfect document. Nothing in life is perfect and it is also not perfect to declare rights but not uphold them effectively. I do note that there are articles about the presumption of innocence and about the principles of legality and the right to defence. As I said last night – I will say it again today – there are too many failings in that respect all across this Union and sometimes, in our eagerness to develop judicial and police cooperation, we neglect the importance of ensuring that the innocent are not made the passive victims, the collateral damage of a war against crime.
Let us not merely adopt these rights but make them real in the hearts and in the experience of our citizens and let us make them part of our law."@en1
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