Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-29-Speech-4-094-000"
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"en.20120329.5.4-094-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, firstly, I should like to thank the rapporteur and our assistants for their work.
This report now lives up to its name, as it addresses the issue of dismantling the obstacles to citizenship. Europe is a wonderful project, but all too often we find that it is not yet fully defined.
Take the economic crisis, for example. It highlighted our weaknesses and gave us the opportunity to create more sound regulatory institutions for the single market. The situation regarding European citizenship is similar. Every day, the Committee on Petitions, which is more like a complaints office, records citizens’ grievances. In three days’ time, the system will be completed with the European Citizens’ Initiative. In spite of all our policies calling for mobility, involvement, European values and exchange, there are still far too many obstacles to exercising citizenship. Citizens who do not see themselves as being European are citizens who will not turn out to vote and will not see the point of Europe in their everyday lives.
My colleagues and I from the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) have made a huge number of proposals – the largest number in fact – and I should like to thank them for that. This report ought to bring about a feeling of belonging to Europe and a European sense of identity, which we must recreate and maintain through these measures. Our Europe must be a Europe that protects.
Commissioner Reding made 25 very concrete proposals to promote citizenship. They are vital if we are to restore trust between citizens and Europe. However, the proposals in this report reflect other expectations that our fellow citizens have: making purchases online, moving home, children’s rights, employment, citizen participation, health care abroad, twinning, rights of minority groups, etc. We are still finding it too difficult to take full advantage of the opportunities that Europe offers. Rights must be used; complaints must be heard and we in this House are the go-betweens.
The European Year of Citizens in 2013 must show citizens that freedom of movement also entails freedom to exercise their rights within Europe."@en1
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