Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-04-Speech-3-273"
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"en.20020904.8.3-273"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Mr Friedrich, citizenship must be seen as a contract between the state and the individual, in which the parties recognise mutual rights and obligations. EU citizenship is a logical extension of the various long established
rights and obligations of various kinds between the EU and Member State citizens.
A natural step towards EU citizenship would, of course, be a binding charter clearly stating and clarifying the fundamental rights and obligations. The charter should be seen as an important part of the principles of EU citizenship and would be at the very heart of citizenship.
The need for EU citizenship has become fully obvious in the light of the necessary restrictions on individual rights that followed the 11 September catastrophe. The need for a developed EU citizenship thus becomes clear, a citizenship that provides a better definition of the basic contract between the individual and the EU and balances rights and restrictions in the same political decision-making system.
With every day that passes it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why some social democratic governments oppose merging the Communities and the Union, yet this is absolutely necessary in order to clarify the fundamental obligations and rights. Without that simplification, any EU citizenship will be difficult to grasp and more or less impossible to communicate to EU citizens.
It should be remembered that the outcome of ongoing national elections could have both a positive and a negative impact on citizens’ rights. EU citizenship
provide an important tool for explaining to European citizens what EU membership means. However, this requires a clearer, simpler Treaty.
As the European Parliament representative on the Interinstitutional Committee on Access to Documents, I have reached an agreement with the Council representative, Mr Haarder, on information focusing directly on the citizen. The idea is to show citizens how and where they can obtain the information that will enable them to take part in European democracy, by giving a simple summary of citizens’ rights in European daily newspapers. The funds for this are there but it is taking
too long to mobilise the political will. This could be a simple way of creating an understanding of citizenship. Consequently, it would be unacceptable if this proposal were delayed just now when it is so important for European democracy. The Commission, which is responsible for organising the next interinstitutional meeting, should therefore promptly – very promptly – organise such a meeting to ensure that Europe’s democratic progress is not delayed.
Finally, I should like to thank Mr Coelho for his very constructive contribution to the democratic development of Europe, in which EU citizenship plays such a central role."@en1
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