Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-30-Speech-3-066"
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"en.20010530.5.3-066"2
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"Mr President, what the Treaty of Nice essentially boils down to is more Union and less democracy. The Treaty of Nice increases the distance between the EU élites and the people of the EU countries, who are being taken hostage as part of what might be described, at its mildest, as a warped understanding of democracy which also finds expression in this Assembly. What really was the background to the Treaty of Nice? All right, it had to do with the enlargement and integration of the European continent. There are only two remarks to be made about this. Firstly, that what is necessary for securing enlargement is not to be found in the Treaty and that what is to be found in the Treaty is unnecessary for the sake of enlargement. The crucial element of this Treaty and of the refrain that forms the basis of this report is to be found in the ambition expressed in recital F and in what follows on from this. It is a question of developing the EU’s institutions and, in particular of course, this Parliament as a surrogate for the national democracies.
The majority of our group can essentially concur with the minority opinion, expressed by Mr Ribeiro e Castro, to the effect that what we have here is a warped view of democracy. We can see this in the curious provision whereby the EU élites are to supervise the democracies. What kind of talk is that? Is it not the people who supervise their democracies? No, it has to be the EU élites. We can see this in the curious proposal tabled in the last part-session, a foretaste of the new Article 191, ‘European political parties’. These are to be financed by the European Union because they cannot acquire money in any other way, partly because they do not have any members. What kind of view of democracy is that? Finally: are the various populations being asked about this Treaty? The Danish people are not being asked. The only people who are being asked are the Irish people, and I sincerely hope that, on behalf of all the populations of Europe, the Irish people will tell these élites that their conception of democracy is a misunderstanding and then vote against the Treaty on 7 June."@en1
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