Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-020"
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"en.20070314.3.3-020"2
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"Mr President, it is a fairly typical morning in Euroland: everybody is busy slapping themselves on the back and saying what a fantastic success the last 50 years have been. There is almost a religious belief that these institutions can deal with the world’s problems, so much so that one or two speakers here think that the Berlin Declaration may even be able to control the weather in the future!
However, I have noticed a slight change of emphasis: you are all talking much more now about freedom, democracy, rights and values, as if it was the European Union that had invented these very things. I suspect you are doing that because you do not want to do the real critical analysis of whether this project is working.
Just think of the economics. The United States of America reached the EU’s current level of GDP per capita in 1985. Perhaps, more significantly, the USA reached current EU levels for per capita research and development investment in 1978. We are an entire economic generation behind the United States of America. The social model is not working and yet the solution seems to be that we want more of it – more regulation, more rules – and, I am afraid, economically this project is falling even further behind.
On the politics, I grant you: you have your big shiny buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, and you have managed to take over more than 75% of the nation states’ ability to make the laws. However, you have forgotten something: you have forgotten about the people, you have forgotten about public opinion. You have been losing referendums and you have chosen to ignore the results. This deceitful attempt of the German Presidency behind closed doors to put together a package that can be rammed through the Member States without a referendum is a recipe for failure. If you go on with this, you will breed the very intolerance and extremism that you say you want to stop. I urge you, please, to ask the peoples of Europe whether or not they want this project."@en1
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