Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-17-Speech-4-054"
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"en.20010517.3.4-054"2
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"Madam President, firstly I will refer to Mr Dupuis’s speech. He said that it is the people and civil society that should decide whether a party exists or disappears. I was concerned to hear this from Mr Dupuis, because obviously it is a subject that he knows well, as his party has just disappeared from the Italian political map.
Going back to serious matters and serious speeches, I am the secretary-general of a European political party and moreover, I would like to stress, of a party that does not sit in the European Parliament. It is the only party that has its own headquarters, a small house in Brussels that is separate from the European Parliament, and funding that for the most part (more than 70%) is not dependent on the parliamentary group but on the parties that are members of our political family.
I think that today is a great day for European construction, but I would go even further: today a big step is being taken in constructing a political Europe. Because those of us who believe in a political Europe, and in my group we do, of course, believe in this, know that the parties are a fundamental part of a political union. Political areas, such as the Member States, have parties that provide cohesion: France, Spain, Italy, Germany... all have national parties.
Europe needs parties that deal with and work in the whole of the Union, and this is what will give cohesion and coherence to the European Union.
I therefore think that this Regulation is a good one and is to be welcomed, for two reasons. Firstly and obviously, because it provides rules and transparency for the functioning and funding of these very important elements for the political future of the European Union. Secondly, because of the role that these parties will play in the future. Because, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, a political union, a Europe of 23, 25, 27 or more Member States is going to be increasingly difficult to manage. It is going to be increasingly difficult to move forward and increasingly difficult to have common opinions.
The European parties are a new instrument that can provide coherence, which can act as the backbone of this political union that we desire, in order to achieve a consensus where it would otherwise be difficult. I can imagine the different European political families meeting prior to the meetings of the European Council with 27 prime ministers and reaching consensuses that will enable the European Union to move forward with a firm step towards the future.
I do not think, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, that we realise the importance of the step that we are taking today."@en1
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