Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-05-Speech-3-031"

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"I too should like to thank the rapporteur for an outstanding piece of work. I want to thank him for having taken the lid off this area and for having found an appropriate balance in the report. It would not have aided further developments if Parliament had gone off in all possible directions at once. This is one of the best examples of the European Parliament’s being able to make a difference and of its being able to perform a task which otherwise could not have been carried out because the individual parliaments would not have been up to the job. It is also a good example of there being a common area of effective operation in Europe that is of potential benefit to all citizens. The purpose of the task can be summarised in three points. Is there such a thing as an ECHELON system? If so, what does it do? And is there a need for democratic initiatives? We can conclude that the system exists. Some say that we knew that already, but it is nonetheless necessary in a community founded on the rule of law to also supply proof of the fact. We can also conclude that there are unacceptable interceptions of private and commercial communications and, against that background, the European Parliament proposes a long list of initiatives concerning what can be done. Above all, a higher degree of democratic supervision could be introduced. In that connection, it was also very pleasing to hear the presidency of the Council speak here today. It offers hope that something will happen, both in the Member States and in the EU, for it is really astounding to hear those who exercise power reveal the extent of their ignorance and say that they have never heard of the system, even though there have been plenty of odds and ends written about it. Had it not been for the European Parliament, they could have remained ignorant, and there is now a rather special form of democratic deficit that amounts to the inability either to hear or to read. ‘Who watches the watchmen?’ Well, the people do, of course; and if democracy is not working, the representatives of the people must be replaced by other representatives."@en1

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