Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-264"
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"en.20090113.26.2-264"2
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"Mr President, thank you for this debate and this discussion. I think it is difficult to summarise but, if I were to do so, I would repeat what some of you have said about this being a fundamental element in any democracy.
I prefer to look at it from the point of view of citizens: the right of citizens to know what is going on and to have access to information and documents and to then be able to make an informed choice. We will all have a very crucial year, because on the 7 June the citizens of Europe will vote in elections. It is, of course, absolutely fundamental that they have access to information.
We are still carrying a burden of historical differences in culture and views on what should be made public or not. I think we are still struggling with that in some cases. I come from a country where we have a very long tradition of the principle of openness and access to documents, while in other Member States it has been the opposite: It is first secret and only the things you decide should not be secret should be made public. I think this is still something that we have to try to tackle and deal with. I think that the report has also shown all the linkages and the interlinkages between all these issues and we have to look at it from a political point of view.
Again, the beauty of the Lisbon Treaty is that it would actually extend the right of information and access to documents and hopefully help end the ‘blame game’, as it would also give us a chance to follow what goes on in the European Council. Mr Cashman and others mentioned this and I think it is so important for all of us.
I hope you know that you can count on me to continue, on a daily basis, to strive to make sure that the Commission improves its access to documents. We can look at what we do in the committees; we can improve what we do on registers and on a number of points that Mr Cappato has raised and that are helpful to us. I think you should keep up the pressure on the Commission, but you have also shown that it concerns Parliament as well. You can also improve and add to openness and transparency. This is certainly a part of strengthening democracy in Europe. We will have the chance to do some work on this during preparations for the EP elections. That would be one of the ultimate tests for all of us.
Thank you very much for the discussion and we will come back to it very soon when we discuss Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001."@en1
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