Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-21-Speech-1-225"
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"en.20080421.20.1-225"2
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"Mr President, some of my fellow Members here are going to say: what is happening today? Have we lost all sense? A Committee on Constitutional Affairs item at ten to eleven at night? What has happened, then? Did Mr Duff strike a blow and relegate Mr Watson to the second row of the Liberal Group? What did we do here in the People’s Party? No, all we did here was comply with the recommendation of the Working Party on Parliamentary Reform, which says that, when there are only a few of us, we should try to meet together, if only to keep warm and not feel alone.
Seriously though, Mr President, I believe that the meeting tonight deals with an important topic. I am very pleased that the Ombudsman is here with us. This is because, as Mrs Wallström, Vice-President of the Commission, so rightly said, after a decade of operation, it is normal and right to stand back and look at what is not working and what could be improved.
This is precisely what the report of Mrs Jäätteenmäki aims to do and I would like to thank her for working so well with us all, and for seeking a consensus which demonstrates that, here in the European institutions, we live in a consensual and not a conflictual democracy. So, congratulations, Mrs Jäätteenmäki.
What we have tried to achieve, Mr President, is something very simple. When the position of Ombudsman was created by the Treaty of Maastricht, we were at an important crossroads between a basically economic Union and an encouragingly political Union. The Ombudsman was a key element in that transition.
Today we want to continue to support the Ombudsman in his work so that he can continue to be a vital player in this
between the institutions and European citizens.
I am therefore convinced that the reforms proposed – by consensus, I would repeat – by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs will go in that direction. At the next mini-plenary session we will debate the report of Mr Stubbs, who is dealing with another important aspect, transparency in the European institutions. Both reports are leading in the same direction, Mr President, and show that here, even at five to eleven at night, we are concerning ourselves with our citizens."@en1
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