Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-22-Speech-2-051"
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"en.20080422.4.2-051"2
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"Mr President, in 1944 Friedrich Hayek made the prescient observation that the delegation of particular technical tasks to separate bodies, while a regular feature, is the first step by which a democracy progressively relinquishes its powers.
Colleagues should ask themselves how much democratic control there is over the various European agencies. We might get the odd committee visit to them, or express general opinions on what their mandates should be, but, in general, the role of this Parliament is to vote through the necessary supply, annually and unconditionally. Thus, the European Union is being run by a standing apparat.
To be fair, it is not alone. Within many of the Member States, my own included, there has been a similar process, whereby elected representatives have given away their powers. What makes the EU unusual is that these various bodies have only the flimsiest of legal bases. True, they would have been authorised by the European Constitution. But that constitution – it seems necessary periodically to remind this House – was rejected at the ballot box. Therefore, many of these agencies – the Human Rights Agency, the Defence Agency, the External Borders Agency and so on – are at best irregular, and at worst illegal.
If you want to regularise their status, and to have a proper mandate for them, then put the constitution to the people in the referendum you once promised.
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