Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-07-Speech-1-202"
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"en.20080707.21.1-202"2
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"Mr President, pluralism and respect for differences are an important value for the European Parliament. This is because the European Union as such must reflect unity in diversity. For this reason, too, the European Parliament should not only respect but actually support the diversity of colours on the political map, the multiplicity of its strands.
While properly defending the rights of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, we must also bear political minorities in mind. Any manipulation of or politically motivated changes to the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament will overtly restrict Parliament’s role as the body representing peoples and communities from all over the European Union. We do not see any need to tamper with those points in the Rules of Procedure that concern the number of countries whose representatives constitute a political group. The current state of affairs is fine. The European Parliament as it is today is working effectively, and as the Chinese proverb goes, ‘leave well enough alone’. Six states are adequate in this context and should not be replaced by seven. All this will do is cause an increase in the number of non-attached Members, who often differ from one another completely and to an extreme. Such a change, like the raising of the threshold needed to form a political group to 30, could in fact impact on pluralism, freedom of opinion, the representativeness of European institutions and our credibility as European Parliament representatives.
Such changes will not create an image of authority for the European Parliament in an election year, which I think is particularly important in view of the turnout at these elections. These changes should not enter into force either in 2009 or at any time, and I am saying this as representative of a group that would manage perfectly well even if these changes were to be introduced."@en1
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