Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-19-Speech-2-122"
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"en.20021119.2.2-122"2
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"Mr President, I would like to address my first comment to you personally. I have a formal complaint to make, and I could just as easily do that in the form of a point of order. This point of order relates to Rule 117, which provides for the equal treatment of the Union’s languages. Where equal treatment is not possible, on the display screens for example, a long-established consistent approach is used whereby we would at least use the language of the country in which we are sitting, so here in Strasbourg, we would use French.
Since yesterday afternoon, however, everyone can see that, on every additional display screen installed in the Chamber for the benefit of the new arrivals, the future members, only one language is used, that is, English. Many of us are upset about this, not just the French Members, I would add, but also MEPs of all nationalities, who do not want English to become the sole language of Europe.
I also noted down, only last night, ladies and gentlemen, a comment made by a fellow Member from Spain which was that the new members will think that they are joining not the European Union, but the Federation of the United States of America. I would ask you to forward this complaint to Parliament’s Presidency.
It is also this fear that I wanted to express to you, on behalf of nine French members of my group, but also on behalf of many fellow Members. Are we sure that, by joining the European Union, in the form that it is, increasingly, assuming with each passing day, the candidate countries are entering Europe? Are we sure that they are not, in actual fact, relinquishing part of their European soul, through which they have often created the most fertile cultures? Are we sure that they are not victims of an intricate illusion and that, ultimately, they are not about to leave Europe to join an Atlantic universe, where differences, cultures, languages and, ultimately, the European heritage – with which they, like us, have been endowed – will be wiped out? The fact is that they belong to Europe; there is no need for this to be acknowledged because they have belonged, naturally belonged, to Europe for centuries. It must be clearly understood that they are European countries even if they do not join the European Union: we could even say that, if they do not join, they will without doubt be even more European than if they do.
In actual fact, the question is not the enlargement of Europe, which was carried out long ago; it is the enlargement of the European Union, in other words an organisation which is something entirely different and can even sometimes be the exact opposite.
It is out of friendship for these people that I am saying this to them, on behalf of many French people – I even think it is the majority of French people – who are opposed to this dreadful and virtually totalitarian idea of so-called European integration. My dear friends of the East, you are giving up your souls, your heritage, your cultures, your freedoms and, ultimately, your very interests and nothing is more telling, at the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, than the linguistic aspect that I mentioned at the beginning of my speech. I shall also take this opportunity to complain to the Commission, represented here by Mr Verheugen, that, last February, it asked the candidate countries to communicate in English during the negotiation process.
This linguistic problem is a sign. The omnipresence of English points clearly to the trap: it is so very, very unfortunate, my friends from the countries of the East, that you are leaving one empire only to join another."@en1
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