Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-18-Speech-3-126"
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"en.20030618.9.3-126"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin by showing you these: empty envelopes. I will explain why when I have finished what I have to say. I would also like to congratulate my friend Mr Jo Leinen on the quality of his work. It is almost faultless. He was right to draw attention to the importance of European parties, which are a vital structural tool in our continental debate. I think the representativeness threshold is right, with the reference to regional parliaments and setting a 3% threshold for European elections. The clause on checking conformity with the Charter of Fundamental Rights also seems a good one to me.
On the other hand, I am still waiting for just one fellow Member to explain to me why a company would spontaneously give money to a political party. It seems to me that when you have to render account to shareholders and you give money, it is in return for a service. It also seems to me, as a mere democrat, that when an elected representative receives money for a service to be rendered, that is called corruption. Then people say to me: yes, but it will be transparent. I am not sure that transparency in corruption is a great step forward. They also tell me it will be very, very little money, the amounts will be tiny. If they will be so very small, why not none at all? If it is as little as that, let us do without that little and let us not prime the pump. Especially since the pump will be directed essentially at the parties in power, who will be able to return the favour. It will then be even easier for them to hold on to power because they will have money. They will be able to render more services and then we will be back where we started.
This brings me back to my envelopes. Like those I have in my hand, the envelopes will multiply, fill with money and circulate, because it will be so easy to break amounts down to avoid all the ceilings and evade all the transparencies. I therefore give you due warning this evening: a day will come, ladies and gentlemen, when the newspaper headlines and the courts will be full of scandals involving the hidden financing of European political parties. I know that democracy, which serves the public sphere, has a cost, but that cost must be borne by the public sphere and by it alone."@en1
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