Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-05-04-Speech-2-045"
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"en.20040504.3.2-045"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, following the inaugural address, today work begins for those of us who are new Members in the European Parliament. We Hungarians have been living at the heart of Europe for thousands of years, and over the centuries we have often had to fight to protect Europe’s freedom and faith. If our fight for freedom in 1956 had not been crushed by the Soviet tanks and the Hungarian servants of the dictatorship, then representatives of our country would have been sitting there in Rome, amongst the founders of today’s Union. Then we Hungarians too would have taken part in the construction work based on security, freedom and wellbeing that we want to strengthen and renew now with the Constitutional Agreement.
Today’s great enterprise of the reunited Europe, the Constitution, can only be successful and long-lasting if it is based on firm foundations. What are these foundations? Firstly: the equal rights of the States that form the Union. We Hungarians have often enough been in a subordinate position, deprived of our rights, and that is why we are particularly sensitive to any violation of equality of rights. What is needed today is not a two-speed Europe, but the rapid and complete removal of the remaining discriminations.
Secondly: lasting union can only be based on strong self-identity. Reference to Christian roots would be the acknowledgement of the spiritual source of our freedom and pluralism today. Without Christianity, Europe would only have a brain, but its heart would be missing. The Christian humanist tradition will keep us together and it will not segregate us. The culture of love born from Christianity is manifested in Beethoven’s Ode to Joy as well. During the years of the twentieth century when Europe was torn apart, behind the Iron Curtain, faith and the church represented for us the institutional bond to the idea of Europe.
Thirdly: Europe must be a union of unions, a system whereby the unions strengthen and build on each other. For us Hungarians, because of Trianon, the injustice of the Treaty of Trianon, it is increasingly important to have the rights of minorities represented in the principles of the Constitution.
Ladies and gentlemen, we must not forget; we have a responsibility to our forefathers and our children alike to fight against the bloody dictatorships of the twentieth century. When we are preparing the reunited, revitalised European Constitution, please bear in mind the words of the Hungarian poet, Attila József: ‘Our job is to finally sort out our mutual business, and it is not a small job.’"@en1
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