Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-11-Speech-2-121"
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"en.20050111.10.2-121"2
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"Mr President, we face many myths and red herrings as we try to promote the debate on the EU Constitution. Mr Corbett and Mr Méndez de Vigo have done an excellent job in their clear and straightforward explanation and advocacy of its merits. Mr Corbett, I shall probably borrow your wording for a pamphlet in my constituency, but this is in a common good cause.
One of the red herrings put around is whether to call the document a 'Constitutional Treaty' or a 'constitution', but, as the authors say, this is a sterile debate. It is a treaty in form, but a constitution in substance. Why are so many people, at least in my own country, Britain, so frightened of the word constitution? Every club, every society has one. In fact the UK itself has one, even though it has never been written down all in one place – unfortunately!
The greatest benefits of the new Constitution are that, on the one hand, it constrains the EU, but on the other, it liberates it. The powers of the European Union will be constrained by strengthened rules on limits to competence, on parliamentary scrutiny, on democratic accountability and the definition of citizens' rights vis-à-vis the administration. But the Union will also be freed up to act more effectively on the domestic and external challenges we face. Domestically, this is most striking in the case of justice and home affairs. We will be able to act more decisively to manage our borders and immigration and to tackle serious crime, as our citizens want us to do.
We will also be able to act more effectively abroad. What an impact it would have made on our public opinion, as well as on the disaster effort, if it had been, for example, a French aircraft carrier with German helicopters and British marines assisting in Aceh in Indonesia, and not just American ones.
Some claim to see in the Charter of Fundamental Rights – which will become legally binding – a threat. I see it as an opportunity. The anti-Europeans have to understand that it will sometimes act in the sense of constraining the EU institutions and giving redress against abuse of powers by them. There is therefore no reason for people to fear and every reason to welcome the Constitution – and indeed this report."@en1
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