Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-17-Speech-2-023-000"
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"en.20120117.4.2-023-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr Schulz, I should like, both personally and on behalf of my group, to congratulate you on your election, but also to congratulate the other candidates who ran in this election. I must add that I enjoyed your first speech, Mr President; even though it started in a slightly social-democratic tone, by the end, it was clear that it really was the President who was speaking. Therefore, I must tell you that you have taken very quickly to your new role.
Finally, Parliament must pave the way to be followed. Parliament must now assume its responsibilities, with the Commission, with the European Central Bank, and pave the way forward to resolve the crisis. It is very clear, it is very simple. Europe is not the problem in this crisis; Europe is the solution to today’s problems.
Finally, I call upon you to indulge your former fellow group chairs and to show some flexibility when it comes to speaking times. In any event, let me remind you that I always overrun my time, Mr President.
However, allow me, Mr President, to first address your predecessor, Jerzy Buzek, with whom I worked for many years in the European Council. We can both testify to the fact that the climate is much better here, within the European Parliament, than it was in the European Council. I must say, Mr Buzek, that you have carried out remarkable work within Parliament. You have ensured that we adapted to the Treaty of Lisbon which had to be implemented. With Parliament’s help, you have conducted all of the policies needed to combat the crisis. I, and all of the other chairs in the Conference of Presidents, have truly enjoyed how we have been able to cooperate with you. Thank you very much, once again, for all the work you have carried out for this Parliament.
Mr President, throughout the campaign for the Presidency of Parliament, I heard many of my fellow Members say to me: ‘Yes, what we need is a neutral Presidency. What we need is a President who does not vote. What we need is a President who does not have an opinion’. I must say that I found this belief rather surprising. I prefer to side with those who believe that we need a President who has an opinion and who is not neutral because it is not possible, Mr President, to remain neutral in the face of the rising intergovernmentalism we are seeing today.
It is not possible, ladies and gentlemen, to remain neutral when we are faced with a Council which continuously devotes itself to denying the Community method and the Monnet method. It is not possible, ladies and gentlemen, to remain neutral when we are faced with constant attacks against the Community method both within the Council and outside it. Nor is it possible, I believe, to remain neutral when we are faced with rising nationalism and populism in Europe, which contradict our European values.
I should therefore like you, Mr President, to be a President, but I should not like you to be a neutral, asexual President without opinions. On the contrary, I should like a President, Mr Schulz, who represents the European Parliament, who represents the European interest without fail, who is different to a President of the Member States and the Council. I should like a President who fights for European integration and – why not say it, let us use the word, we were not able to use it for decades – I should like a President who fights for European federalism as Monnet, Schuman, de Gasperi and Spinelli wished to do.
I should especially like, Mr Schulz, if it is possible, a President who speaks to the Member States when he goes to the Council – you will be invited, into this House of the European Council, with all due respect, as President of Parliament – who takes advantage of this opportunity, as your predecessors did, to tell the States the truth and to tell them that only a single fiscal, economic and political Union will save the euro."@en1
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