Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-14-Speech-3-034"
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"en.20051214.6.3-034"2
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"Mr President, for the first time in 11 years, we see a President-in-Office of the Council declining to avail himself of his right to speak in response to the first round of debate. So short is a presidency’s road from splendid to wretched, from its dissembling performances on the European stage to its public failure, from great affirmations to the ostracism that is the present lot of the British Presidency of the Council. It began with fanfares and ends with the passing-bell at a pauper’s grave. Six months ago, wanting to regain people’s trust, you promised them leadership. I really do pity you; Tony Blair took responsibility for the great performance, while you must take responsibility for the ostracism. I am not surprised that you do not want to talk about it.
Leadership was what you promised, but what you showed was national egoism, with Europe as a bazaar of national interests, a Europe run by governments. You wanted to regain people’s trust, but, at the end of these six months, all surveys indicate that, because of your policies, people in every country have markedly less of it in you.
Turning to the Financial Perspective, you affirmed your belief in a Europe of solidarity, yet are dividing the EU financially and creating a first- and second-class Europe. Solidarity among Member States is becoming a thing of the past. Having announced great reforms, you are making your agreement to the Financial Perspective conditional upon agricultural reform, and are now, by cutting funding for regional development, wrecking the only successful reform that we have seen. You wanted to prepare the way for the social Europe, yet what came out of Hampton Court was that the social model in Europe does not actually exist. That is what has emerged from your Presidency, and it is lamentable.
Internal security was meant to be one of your Presidency’s priorities; instead, it has become a fiasco. It was your own Home Secretary who managed to be the first representative of a democratic government to describe the European Convention on Human Rights as outdated. The whole issue of the ban on torture, in particular, shows the British Presidency in a curious light. Perhaps that is the explanation for why this Presidency of the Council has let the public down on the most fundamental of fundamental rights issues in the face of the presumed crime of abduction and transportation, and the utter inability of the government of the United Kingdom to do anything about it.
I have but one question to put to the British Presidency, and it is this: when will you stop travelling to Europe, and instead start living in it?"@en1
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