Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-17-Speech-3-213"
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"en.20010117.6.3-213"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, this debate has made it very clear that the majority of Members of the European Parliament is disappointed by the outcome of Nice. The real reason is as follows. In Nice, transparency and democracy for the European Union fell by the wayside. What happened? We find the Council applying the qualified majority principle in more and more areas. That prevents any scrutiny by the national parliaments, whose decisions can, of course, be outvoted by the respective majorities in the Council.
But this democratic scrutiny has, unfortunately, not been replaced by democratic scrutiny by the European Parliament nor, unfortunately, by codecision by the European Parliament. Here, I am convinced, lies the crucial weakness of what was decided in Nice.
Mr President of the Council, Sweden has a great tradition of democracy and transparency. I expect the Swedish Presidency to support us in our endeavour to remedy these weaknesses of Nice and to strengthen the legitimacy of democratic decisions in the European Union again, and I am convinced it will do so.
I want to address a second point. During its term of office the Swedish Presidency must prepare for the introduction of the euro, i.e. of the notes and coins, in 12 European Union countries. The question we keep asking ourselves is this: who actually represents the euro externally? I am persuaded that the European Commission ought to undertake to do more here than it has to date. The French Presidency gave us clear information. Accordingly, the president of the 12 EU countries represents the euro externally. That in turn leads to a paradoxical situation. The Swedish Finance Minister represents the European Union externally for general economic policy questions, while when it comes to the euro, to the euro currency, this job goes to the Belgian Finance Minister. If even we in the European Parliament cannot understand that, how are the citizens of the European Union supposed to understand it? How are the markets to understand it? We must do our outmost to return to a sensible situation here.
You, Foreign Minister, can make a major contribution here. If you manage to persuade your fellow-countrymen that the euro is a good project, that it is stable from within, that its external stability is also constantly improving; if you can persuade them to support this great project of European integration, you will also help ensure that the citizens gain a better understanding of this aspect of the European Union."@en1
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