Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-11-Speech-2-022"
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"en.20050111.5.2-022"2
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"Mr President, though this House, in self-congratulatory euphoria, will embrace this Constitution, thankfully the ultimate decision rests with the Member States. It is their votes that really matter.
What I despise most is the false pretence, particularly prevalent in the United Kingdom, that this Constitution is merely a tidying-up exercise made necessary by enlargement and that it will settle the constitutional shape of Europe for generations. That is demonstrably false. Those who peddle that deception are best exposed by the Constitution's own most ardent and more honest proponents.
In the Constitutional Affairs Committee, I have observed at first hand the strategy and scheming of arch Europhiles. They make no secret of the fact that this Constitution is not an end in itself, but a work in progress and they do nothing to conceal their ambition to have it, in their terms, strengthened at the first opportunity – without, of course, the troublesome obstacle of further national consultation. Their undisguised candour gives the lie to those who would deceive voters into thinking that this is a mere tidying-up exercise: it is not.
The choice for the nation-states is this: a choice between a Europe of cooperating sovereign nation-states, or a Europe that is itself a superstate. Despite all the denials, this Constitution is a framework for superstatehood. It declares its supremacy over national constitutions; it proclaims the subservience of national law; it appoints its own president and foreign minister. It relegates national parliaments to mere consultative sounding boards; it trades meaningful democracy for the pseudo-democracy of this House; it neuters the last defence of the nation-state by increasingly supplanting the national veto with radically increased qualified majority voting; and it provides an unbridled path to further integration by permitting amendment by heads of government rather than by the people. Anyone with pride in his or her own nation, who does not want to see it subsumed into a hideous conglomerate, will reject this tawdry Constitution."@en1
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