Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-265"
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"en.20070523.20.3-265"2
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"Mr President, your government, Mr Prime Minister, wants the European Constitution to dispense with the symbols of the European Union, with Article I-8 being deleted on the supposed grounds that the blue flag with the twelve golden stars and Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ are expressions of an identity as a state.
Is that meant to mean, Mr Prime Minister, that any and every local association may adopt a banner and make it binding under its own articles, but that the EU, with its 500 million people, may not? I hope you will not mind me saying this, but that sort of thinking is both prehistoric and idiotic. European integration is an historic project like no other; it is not a state, let alone a superstate, and so it is not least for that reason that it is astonishing that such a dubious idea should originate from a founding member of the Community.
Let me tell you that those who deny the validity, 50 years on from the signing of the Treaties of Rome, of the universally recognised and familiar symbols of the EU are – symbolically, adding grist to the mills of those who, questioning European integration as such, wish to turn their backs on it and return to their own identities as nation states. Surely it is not to be denied that the anthem and the flag bind our states and peoples together; it is because they foster an identity that they need official recognition.
So, Mr Prime Minister, please do not take the people of Europe for a ride, not even those in your own country who voted ‘no’, for they, together with the people of my own country and in others, do not want a dispute about banners; what they want is a social and democratic Europe. They want an answer to the question as to whether the EU exists to protect people or markets; they want something done about dumping – wage dumping, social dumping and tax dumping, and that is what you should be picking up on, for that is where forward-looking solutions are wanted, so stop shadow-boxing with the symbols of European integration."@en1
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