Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-06-09-Speech-4-285-000"
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"en.20160609.23.4-285-000"2
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"Mr President, actually I have rather enjoyed this debate, even though there are not many here, but, in some respects, it is the essence of what we are about. It is about how we, the elected representatives and the Commission – called bureaucrats – communicate so that Europe can be better for all its citizens.
When this Parliament was first established, I believe it was called a Mickey Mouse parliament, and that is why we have the Mickey Mouse star outside. I am not sure whether that is true or not, but definitely this Parliament initially had no powers, but they have evolved over a period of time. The Lisbon Treaty was very important in that regard – the Lisbon Treaty that took probably 10 years to negotiate and, of course, in my own country, took two referendums to pass. If it was not passed in our country, it could not come into being because it required unanimity.
As a result, there is an onus on us, as legislators because of the powers of codecision, to ensure that the Commission, in particular, is held to account. Over the years, that unfortunately does not seem to have been the position and as a result, sometimes incorrectly, impressions were given, right across Europe through the media, that everything bad was emanating from Brussels. Now you have a potential Brexit which, in many respects, is based on that erroneous assumption, but it was allowed to go unchallenged for years. There was nobody there to put the other side, and Parliament, because it lacked power and lacked information, was not in a position to actually put the other side. Thankfully, that is now beginning to change, hopefully not too late where the United Kingdom is concerned.
I particularly welcome the new Commission, under President Juncker, who have made it very clear that they want to be more responsive, they want to cooperate more and they want to work with Parliament. Saying it is one thing, doing it is another and, as people have pointed out, especially I think in relation to Mercosur – Mr Assis referred to it and he was right in that regard – it actually took a debate and a vote here in Parliament to put a halt to some of the unsavoury aspects of that discussion. I think that is a great example of the need, in the interests of the European Union and everybody, for the Commission to constantly inform and to constantly consult Parliament regarding any international agreements. Hopefully that can work out well.
TTIP has been mentioned, and actually today was probably the first time I heard a balanced account of the need for publicity, but also disclosure and transparency. Both sides of the House, especially on the left, did acknowledge that you cannot have negotiations in public. After all, you are negotiating with a third country. You can only disclose what they wish to disclose and of course also – and this is very important – what you might start out with as a negotiating position might finish up entirely different when you actually finish the discussions. What would happen in that regard, if every negotiating position was made public, is that the naysayers would have a field day because they would present that as a de facto position, so you could not really have a discussion at all. You would have no discussions and you would have no negotiations, because nobody would want to negotiate with you if you were going to be publishing everything.
So I think we are gradually getting the balance right, and hopefully the Commission will do everything they can for more disclosure to inform Parliament constantly so that we can work together so that our citizens are informed that we are here for their good, both the Commission and Parliament."@en1
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