Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-21-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20040721.1.3-013"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, it was in a difficult situation that Ireland took up the Presidency. Your time as President of the Council saw the historic enlargement of the EU, the adoption of the Constitution and the elections to the European Parliament.
What concerns me in particular is the low turnout at the European elections, although that was not primarily a problem with the Irish Presidency. We MEPs, rather than merely continually lamenting this sad state of affairs, should be learning whatever lessons we can from it. The fact is that fewer and fewer members of the public have any confidence in the European Union, and the reason for this is that the Community is not there for them and fails to respond to their day-to-day concerns.
According to Eurostat, some 70% of people in the European Union wanted the issue of unemployment to be at the heart of European policy-making and of the election campaign, whereas in fact the debates were dominated by national issues and institutional EU-speak. We really cannot go on like this! You are right, Mr President of the Commission, to say that what matters most in future is the social Europe, but it is important that, instead of us just talking about it, the European Union must take action once and for all; in the eyes of the public, only actions count.
Now, with the ratification of the Constitution, we have the opportunity to have in-depth discussions with the public about the European Union’s future. It is because people are directly affected by it that they need to be asked straight questions, as President Chirac of France said. I think he got it right. What is feasible in France or the UK must be a possibility in Germany, my own country.
I therefore call on all Members of this House to work with persistence towards the holding of referendums on the Constitution in every Member State of the European Union and, above all, for in-depth dialogue with people on the future of the European Union."@en1
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