Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-31-Speech-3-059"
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"en.20060531.9.3-059"2
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"Mr President, Mr Verhofstadt, I should like to thank the President for organising this debate and congratulate Mr Verhofstadt on the views he has expressed. Some of us are acquainted with his very pro-active approach, but at times like these – amidst growing euro-scepticism and pessimism – a positive take such as his is more than welcome. I am indebted to him for this.
I am also grateful that this debate has happened at all, because it looks to me that both the Prime Minister’s speech and the speeches of a number of our fellow Members, including group chairmen, managed to lay bare the main areas of concern that we face. I would first of all like to mention the schizophrenia among Heads of Government, Heads of State and ministers who meet to take joint decisions on average once a month, in the case of ministers, and four times a year in the case of Heads of State or Government, without whose permission nothing can be done in Europe. After their meetings, they go home and act as if they have nothing to do with this whole European business, as a result of which, of course, there is, inevitably, huge distrust on the part of the public. As you said yourself, Prime Minister, if something has gone right, then they, and they alone, take the credit; if something went wrong, then Brussels is obviously to blame. This is what I would call schizophrenia.
Many Members also mentioned masochism. So many Heads of Government, Heads of State or Members of this House are enormously eloquent in underlining the EU’s shortcomings, but never mention what it does right. In the final analysis, Mr Verhofstadt, I think you have shown the way forward in saying that we should look for ‘and/and’, rather than ‘either/or’ solutions. I think that that is the way we can leave the crisis behind. Thank you for your attention."@en1
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