Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-03-Speech-3-029"
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"en.20031203.6.3-029"2
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"Mr President, this is probably the last time we shall be meeting before the summit on 12–13 December, and I should like to warn against the Constitution that is now on its way.
The Laeken Declaration set the task of bringing the EU closer to its citizens. Now, a large number of new decisions is to be transferred from the national parliaments to officials behind closed doors in Brussels. More decisions are to be transferred from open parliaments to semi-secret Council working parties than decisions in the Council are to be made open. Overall openness will diminish. Legislative power is essentially being turned into executive power. In essence, the electorate is having its influence curtailed. The democratic deficit will increase, although the task was to reduce it. The federalists in this House are clapping their hands with glee, as they themselves will obtain more influence. Instead, they should be opposing the fact that national parliaments are ceding much more power than the European Parliament is gaining. The electorate and the elected representatives will be the losers. Lobbyists and officials will gain legislative power if the present draft is adopted.
The Heads of State or Government will be given the right to appoint those who will hold power in the EU. The President of the EU, the EU Minister for Foreign Affairs, the President of the Commission and his/her vice-president will all be appointed by an alliance of 17 out of 25 Heads of State or Government. Eight countries can be outvoted and their wishes disregarded. Out of those 17, ten will probably be able to continue as leaders in their own countries. The seven who do not hold on to power back home can then share jobs in Brussels. When politicians lose the confidence of the people in their own country, they can have their rejected policies embalmed for five years. The monopoly on making legislative proposals will rest with people who can no longer be elected. The Commissioners are not elected and are not answerable to the electorate. The Commission can only be unseated with a two-thirds majority, and doing so will at most create a crisis.
The European Parliament itself is undergoing a crisis, with ever falling voter turnout and an inability to make the Commissioners comply with a bookkeeping law applying to every book-seller in the EU, for example. Effective means against fraud do, however, exist, namely openness and democracy. Let the Commissioners be appointed by, and be answerable to, the national parliaments. Thus, no Commissioner will get away with saying ‘I am not responsible; I did not know what was happening’.
Build Europe from the bottom up and not from the top down."@en1
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