Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-14-Speech-2-023"
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"en.20041214.5.2-023"2
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"Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, it is by no means easy to deliver an appreciation of the Commission’s strategic policy objectives in two and a half minutes, but, as we are in such festive spirits, I do have this to say on the subject. Let us imagine the Commission as Santa Claus and me as a little boy. I will have to give some more thought to the role to be played by the Council, and will leave you to imagine it as Rudolf or as Santa’s little helpers.
I now have the difficult task of drawing up my wish list, and top of the list is that I, along with all other MEPs, should no longer be denied the right of codecision in matters of justice and home affairs. This is an important field for the EU, and one in which this House expects, from 2005, to be fully involved, for our European society is founded upon the rule of law, and every citizen allows himself to be guided by the standards set by the Community, believing as he does that these have been examined and approved by the majority of his legitimate representatives. My wish is that that belief should become reality.
My second wish is that we should all play by the same rules – rules that we have made for ourselves. I think we can no longer tolerate the situation in which national governments, in love with their own grandeur, circumvent the institutions they created. When a handful of European interior ministers take decisions as a clique, they treat European democracy with contempt. Both Tampere and the Hague Programme are good examples of a Community approach that involves everyone. My wish is that we should press on with this open dialogue instead of forming ourselves into small clubs.
My third wish is that due account be taken of the need for data protection. It is time that the third pillar included an instrument comparable to Directive 95/46/EC on data protection. I would like Commissioner Frattini to remember that he has indicated his agreement to this.
My fourth wish – and my last for today – is that the European Union should face terrorism head-on, and that it should show that democracy also means the defence of democracy. The European Union must demonstrate that it is more than equal to those who seek to send freedom up in flames. A victory for terrorism means the destruction of free society, and that is something we must neither aid nor abet. I would like to see the Commission valuing and maintaining fundamental democratic principles, the freedom of the individual, and giving due weight to data protection.
Most of the wish lists I have seen and heard so far are not as short as that, but for all those who wrote them they are expressions of hope. My hope is that what I want for Christmas will not be buried under a snowdrift thrown up by political aberrations."@en1
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