Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-09-Speech-4-013"
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"en.20081009.3.4-013"2
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"Mr President, I fully support the parliamentary initiative on the flag and the anthem. European unity needs these symbols because they bring Europe closer to the people and create an identity, and so they need to be officially recognised. Against this background, I see our decision today as a small but significant step to bring us back, as soon as possible, to normality.
The removal of the anthem and the flag from the Treaty – the background to which I of course am fully aware of – is and remains an essentially barbaric act against European unity, for which those who called for this step ultimately bear responsibility. The fact is that we have played into the hands of the Ganleys, Klauses and Haiders: their nationalist slogans about a European ‘superstate’, which were targeted against European integration, have thus gained a veneer of credibility.
However, that is just one side of the coin. There is another issue which I would like raise and which causes me no less concern. The citizens of the European Union do not want or need a furore about flags and anthems in Brussels. What they want is a social and democratic Europe, a European Union which offers them effective protection from the negative repercussions of globalisation. They want a clear answer as to what, or whom, the Union is protecting, the people or the markets? They want serious action to be taken against wage, social and tax dumping and an end, once and for all, to the galloping casino capitalism promoted by financial jugglers. For that, we need a political European Union."@en1
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