Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-27-Speech-3-018"
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"en.20070627.3.3-018"2
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"Mr President, Madam President-in-Office, ladies and gentlemen, the German Presidency has been a success, the German Presidency has set new standards. That is what the President said at the beginning of the debate and, Madam Chancellor, the presence of the German Government and the competence of its members, particularly those from the Social Democratic Party, have made a lasting impression.
We will not have the European Union inherit this
because we do not want it to be our undoing, and we will not allow the European Union to be led down a road that it must not go down. Europe and the European Union are an idea. It is the idea of overcoming the demons and enmities of the past through European integration. We will not allow a handful of people to resurrect past enmities and destroy the idea of Europe. That is precisely what you put a stop to at the weekend, and we thank you for it.
I should now like to say a few words on a disturbing moment in these negotiations. Madam Chancellor, our generation, regardless of the part of Germany from which we come, has a duty that we, like all democratic politicians in our country, try to live up to, namely to draw the right conclusions from our country’s mistakes and from the crimes that were committed in our people’s name. The right conclusion that we Germans have drawn was to anchor the reunified Germany in the European Union, to make it part of an integrated community of nations, so as to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated. That is our duty; that is what we are working towards together, whether Socialists, Christian Democrats, Liberals or Greens. That is our common obligation, our common task, which we Germans – and I am saying this as a Member of this international Parliament – must, in my opinion, live up to. We therefore also have the right to say that anyone who wants to use the dead of the Second World War to bargain for more votes in the Council of Ministers misunderstands what European politics is all about and should be rejected out of hand.
Madam President-in-Office, you said that the European Parliament was the big winner of this round. We are the big winner because we will act. The Council will continue to tie its own hands with its arcane voting methods. Congratulations! Once our majorities at both first and second reading are taken into account, we will be the decisive force in the European Union, just as we have been on roaming, REACH and the services directive. You have just signed it now, with the European flag behind you. In 2057 it is the pro-Europeans that people will remember and not those who wanted to stop this unstoppable idea.
My heartfelt thanks go to the German Presidency. Thank you for your visit and for the excellent cooperation. Finally, thank you also to Wilhelm Schönfelder, who is sitting next to you and who has done a magnificent job representing the Federal Republic of Germany for all of these years.
Last weekend’s Summit achieved less than we would have liked, but it achieved a great deal. The progress made at the weekend was not negligible; it was significant. We have taken many significant steps forward. Much of what you have reported on and what the Commission President has described was demanded by the European Parliament.
I should like to explain why it bodes well that you stood firm in these negotiations. Much took place behind closed doors, but we meet in public. I should therefore like to share the following: I have learnt that during the night you explained that if there were no unanimity you would convene the intergovernmental conference by a qualified majority and there would be a vote. As this spectre of secession hung over the room – and some in this Europe wish to support it – you held your nerve, stood up and said that countries needed to put their cards on the table. At this, several gave ground and then there came the unanimous result. That explains how you led the negotiations to such a successful conclusion last weekend.
To those who only want to represent their own interests in Europe, who only want to appeal to national interests, I say, as your predecessor, Konrad Adenauer, did with characteristic bluntness: I must not slaughter the cow that I wish to milk. He was right, and his words still ring true for the European Union today.
We have made significant progress. Europe is now much more transparent. There is transparency in the Commission, and also in Parliament, but not in the European Council. We talk about Europe being in crisis, but last weekend has made it even more plain that it is not the European institutions that are in crisis; it is above all the governments of the European Union’s Member States that are in crisis.
Madam Chancellor, I am not talking about all governments, just some of them. I should like to thank the Heads of State or Government who fought on our side: Romano Prodi, Guy Verhofstadt, Jean-Claude Juncker and you yourself, who said: we want European unity because there is no alternative. There were other governments who did not join in, who wanted something different. The Polish Government – not the Polish people, who, contrary to their government, are pro-European – should remember that in its history Poland had the
. The Polish Parliament of Nobles could only make a decision if there was unanimous agreement. The
was the downfall of the Polish Commonwealth, amongst other things."@en1
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"liberum veto"1
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