Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-22-Speech-4-026"
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"en.20040722.1.4-026"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as a non-attached MEP from a small Member State like Austria, one cannot avoid a feeling of total powerlessness when this House takes important decisions about who is to do what job, and of having absolutely no influence over them. It is well known that the election of the President of this House was organised beforehand behind closed doors, and the same is equally true of the election of the President of the Commission.
I nevertheless want to ask the new President of the Commission, who is evidently already firmly established, as a matter of urgency, not to overlook the views of the broad majority of EU citizens on what will be one of the most important issues of his term of office, namely that of the accession of Turkey to the EU. In my own country, Austria, before the European elections on 13 June, people were more or less clearly promised that Turkey would not be joining the EU, as it was not a European country and was not ready for Europe. Negotiations with Ankara are now to be set in motion, and it is reported that you, Mr Barroso, have declared yourself to be in favour of Turkey’s accession. In Austria, at any rate, people feel they have been duped about this important issue; they sense that Turkey’s accession to the EU is yet another done deal, and that whether or not they are in favour of it is quite irrelevant. That being so, we in this House cannot be surprised that there is growing disenchantment with Europe in every corner of the EU, whilst you, Mr Barroso, speak in terms of a few people being sceptical about Europe and many being apathetic about it, which is much more dangerous. This Euro-apathy will become rejection of Europe if we go over the public’s heads in this way. Mr Barroso, I urge you, in future, to fight for a citizens’ Europe, to listen to public opinion, and that includes where Turkey is concerned."@en1
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