Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-04-05-Speech-2-520-000"
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"en.20110405.22.2-520-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to express my sincere thanks to Mrs Giannakou, since she has carried out a great and intelligent piece of work.
When we talk about political parties, we must take two problems into consideration. Firstly, parties are not much esteemed in any country. Secondly, when European elections take place, political parties are generally considered to pursue the interests of their national state and not the interests of Europe as a whole. At the level of public opinion, there is therefore a lack of positive esteem either for the parties or for their function in relation to the forging of Europe.
We must therefore act urgently. Not only in the Treaty of Lisbon, as has already been noted, but in many constitutions, in almost all European constitutions, the function of the parties is considered to be of national interest, and thus crucial in the creation of democracy and the pursuit of common interests. It is important to stress that I am speaking about constitutions, and not ordinary laws, and that thus I am referring to the fundamental structures of the States and the European Union as a whole.
It is thus pressing that we define a statute for parties that are truly European-facing, and not only an algebraic sum of individual national formations that have no permanent European structure on the ground. We need to see parties that think and act in a European context instead. The need I am describing is much more pressing if we really do want to see a uniform European electoral law which, hopefully, could even lead to a single European constituency to sit alongside the national constituencies. This will increase the individual European citizen’s sense of belonging to Europe.
I come now to the core of my argument. As has already been emphasised – and I thank the Commissioner in advance – my committee has worked very hard, holding hearings and many meetings, but we need a proposal, an initiative from the European Commission, which brings together European parties within the law of the Union with a new legal form under public law, with a legal personality that is also valid in all Member States and with a uniform structure that allows them to act as representatives of the European public interest. I thank Mrs Giannakou and the Commissioner for their pledges."@en1
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