Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-21-Speech-3-016"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040721.1.3-016"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Taoiseach, ladies and gentlemen, the Irish Presidency will go down in history mainly because it saw the greatest ever enlargement of European structures. Only now has the European Union become genuinely European. Enlargement has been merely formal and political in nature, however. It has failed to impact on a number of areas. One of these is the labour market, where Europeans are still being segregated into first and second class citizens. The transitional periods before citizens of the New Union can enjoy full access to the labour market demonstrate that Europe remains divided. They bring to mind
by the British author George Orwell. In that novel, some were deemed to be more equal than others.
Such a Union is a disgrace. Changes must be introduced at the earliest opportunity. There has to be an end to all discrimination within Europe.
I should like to address one comment to the Taoiseach. He referred to Old Europe and New Europe. It can hardly be appropriate for him to refer to Central and Eastern Europe as New Europe, when the history of the nations concerned goes back over a thousand years. I suggest to the Taoiseach that he would be better advised to refer to the New Union, which is also the Old Europe.
President Prodi spoke of increasing the Commission’s competence in economic affairs. I trust this does not include the competence to raise taxes in Member States, notably in the new Member States. I can assure you that the citizens would not tolerate such a Union.
Finally, there is something I should like to thank the Taoiseach for. Throughout his country’s six month Presidency of the European Union he never forgot that the Union is first and foremost a Europe of the nations and must remain so."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples