Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-28-Speech-3-019"
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"en.20040128.3.3-019"2
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"Mr President, the Constitution is said to reflect the will of both the people and states. We know how the will of states is measured: it is decided by parliaments. That is not necessarily the same thing as the will of the people. If the Constitution is to be decided upon nationally, the large majority of our group think the will of the people should be measured by means of a referendum in all Member States. Those countries which adopt the Constitution will establish a new Union. The intention is to continue the work of the old Union. Under the Constitution the present Union will be suspended. This must be a unanimous decision under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States. If a country is in disagreement, that is its legal right. If the Union that many countries joined after a referendum is suspended, a referendum will also have to be organised regarding accession to the new Union in as many Member States as possible.
The Constitution has been virtually finalised at an intergovernmental conference. The articles on military matters, among which there is a new model for structural cooperation, were agreed at Naples. These are not just about defence: a special additional protocol in it also provides for any demanding military operations that may be referred to as ‘peacemaking’, and which therefore also include invasion. In fact the EU is not now preparing for defence, but attack. Our group does not think this kind of militarisation of the EU is necessary. Neither should the involvement of NATO be written into the Constitution as has now been done. What still needs to be written into the Constitution is the rule that EU crisis management must be based on a mandate from the UN.
Our group is prepared to participate in structural work in a social Europe. The draft Constitution, however, is not satisfactory in this area. We want to make changes to it to safeguard the provision of services to all EU citizens. We need social security and not European militarism. Our group thus wants a social Europe but there have not been any satisfactory decisions taken by the Convention or the IGC in that area as far as we are concerned. We do not think it appropriate that the Constitution was drafted in conjunction with talks on the EU’s new financial perspective. Member States cannot be forced to accept a constitution which their citizens cannot agree to. We need referenda. Ninety-six members of the Convention called for a referendum. They represented both the yes and the no vote in future referenda. Referenda are people’s democracy."@en1
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