Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-05-Speech-3-102"
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"en.20031105.7.3-102"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, only with a sense of irony or with a sense of humour – since, as Rabelais said that what distinguishes man is his capacity to laugh – can we talk about progress in the work of the Intergovernmental Conference. It would be more accurate to talk about steps backward than progress. Nevertheless, the failure of the Intergovernmental Conference to give the European Union a Constitution worthy of the name would certainly be a major disappointment for Europe’s citizens, who would clearly feel let down. In fact, the overwhelming majority of Europeans have accepted the idea of the Constitution because of its symbolic importance and because of its capacity to mobilise people. By way of example, a recent survey conducted in Portugal shows that 69% of the Portuguese people are in favour of the Constitution and only 9% are against and the view from other European countries is more or less the same.
The Constitution is nevertheless within reach and can easily be approved by 5 December and signed in Rome, the Eternal City. All the Member States have to do is simply accept the project that came out of the Convention and give up on the damaging idea of rewriting it or of pulling it apart. Some States actually appear to want to be negative about Europe; countries that are obsessed with the fact that they are big or, conversely, that they are small. Some countries appear to demand only rights and make no mention of duties and others are more concerned about creating blocking minorities than working majorities. If this happens and if national self-interest prevails, what will be the fate of the European spirit and of the historical idealism associated with European integration? This would sound their death-knell and would scupper them for good.
I, like many European citizens, also wish to have a Constitution that is more federal, more socially minded, and which encompasses a genuine common foreign and defence policy. This Constitution must then be given legitimacy, as a constitutional text must be, by the citizens, by means of a referendum. I do, however, accept and support the current text, which represents enormous progress, in both form and content, and which heralds a new era of European constitutionalism. I therefore say ‘Long live the Constitution’!"@en1
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