Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-038"
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"en.20071212.2.3-038"2
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"Mr President, President of the Council, Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I feel it right that we should start by publicly recognising the work of the Portuguese Presidency on a date which is very significant for the European Parliament, as exemplified by the ornamental front to the Presidency podium depicting the solemn declaration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Portuguese Presidency received – and I say this as a representative of the European Parliament at the Intergovernmental Conference – a draft in which the Charter of Fundamental Rights was only declaration No 11. It is also right to point out – as the President of the Council told me personally at the beginning – that it was virtually impossible to change that status, and I believe that in the work of the Intergovernmental Conference we jointly managed to ensure that the Charter of Fundamental Rights was a legally binding charter. The Member States did not want to include it in the Treaty, but it is a Charter and has a constitutional status.
I think we should remember the efforts made by many men and women over the years in the European Parliament in order to achieve that Charter. I think we ought to remember the woman who embodies the tragedy and the power to overcome of 20th century Europe, Simone Weil, not to mention men such as Altiero Spinelli, Fernand Herman and many others who worked for so many years so that, finally, we could have a declaration of rights which would express our identity.
Mr President, I also think it is time, in a Parliament which legislates indiscriminately about cows, goats, cucumbers and finance, for us to talk finally about people, about the man and woman in the street. I find it regrettable that there are still a few States even today who are limiting the rights of their nationals as European citizens.
Finally, Mr President, I would like to add another important comment, which is that the Charter and the Lisbon Treaty strengthen the Union as a supranational democracy of States and citizens, and that is the first response in an era of political globalisation. We are doing it at regional level, but I believe that it is an example which we should follow for our own future and for that of mankind as a whole."@en1
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