Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-16-Speech-1-059"
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"en.20021216.5.1-059"2
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"Mr President, I am in favour, intellectually, of the process of streamlining and simplifying, so well argued by Jean-Louis Bourlanges. I am in favour because he takes account of the long theoretical work that this Parliament has been developing since Maastricht, because this is a parliamentary
that must be included in the text of the Convention and lastly, because this work has resulted in clear instruments and effective decision-making procedures, which are crucial to the smooth functioning of the future Union.
Unfortunately, Mr Bourlanges, in the text’s philosophical and theoretical subconscious – for example, in paragraph 5, second indent – we can discern a terrible distrust of the small and medium-sized States which makes me unwilling at the present time to adopt the report, for various and quite straightforward reasons. It is the differences between the large States on the major issues that have impeded the Union’s progress. It is not through any lack of will on the part of the small States that the United Kingdom has not signed up to the euro or to the Schengen area! And nor can the small States be held responsible for the absence of a Social Europe, the small size of the budget, the lack of reform of the CAP, the crisis in structural policy or the limitations of the judicial instruments of the area of freedom, security and justice.
We cannot, then, where the size of States is concerned, recall the perennial response of the unforgettable chief of police in
which was to ‘round up the usual suspects’! It is not square kilometres, longitudes, latitudes and
GDP that determine how important countries are to the common interest, the European interest! For this very reason, these criteria cannot be used to impose finalised constitutional solutions, leaving anyone who does not agree standing in the hallway, in other words, one step away from the door leading out.
Perhaps Mr Bourlanges, with his intelligence, knowledge and unswervingly pro-European attitude, should have explored this point further and fought harder to find a reasonable and consensual solution. I hope he will do this, at least by tomorrow."@en1
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