Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-08-Speech-1-148"
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"en.20040308.12.1-148"2
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"Madam President, I wish to thank Mr Dimitrakopoulos for his work on this report and for the scheme he has brought forward.
However, my Group and I will be voting against the report if Amendments Nos 6 and 7 are not adopted. We think they are important. The quality of a democracy is measured by its respect for its minorities. It is very important to note that the d'Hondt proportionality, which governs the composition of our Bureau, does not, and cannot, guarantee that all political positions represented in Europe – far less represented in this House – will take part in the decision-making. This is all the more objectionable when the rule is that parties seeking funding need only be heard on some issues rather than on all issues that come before the Bureau. These are points I take very seriously.
It is also important that in discussing the funding of political parties it is necessary that all voices should take part, even though we accept that the d'Hondt proportionality means that only some of the parties should be participants as voters on the Bureau. I hope these amendments will be accepted, because if they are not we will certainly vote against the report.
As I have said, politics is also about the representation of minorities. I slightly disagreed with what Mr Dimitrakopoulos just said about political parties being institutions, which build in with parliaments and commissions, etc. Above all, in the political tradition to which I belong, political parties are voluntary associations of like-minded citizens. All the better that they should now become voluntary associations of like-minded citizens collaborating right across this great continent. However, voluntary associations are not the same as institutions, even though the maintenance of satisfactory democratic politics requires, in contemporary circumstances, that there be some public support for political parties.
I speak in this House for the European Free Alliance, for the parties representing minority nations within Member States – regions, as they are sometimes called: not very accurately, in my judgment. The increase in size of the Union, with the welcome arrival of many small states, makes it ever harder for a party like the European Free Alliance, which has been in existence for many years, to satisfy threshold requirements of the kind that are now being set. Every time we come to this House it appears that the hurdles are set yet higher in favour of the large political groupings, while neglecting the fair and legitimate interests of minorities.
Therefore I call upon the House to accept this report only if at least Amendments Nos 6 and 7 are adopted."@en1
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