Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-12-Speech-2-095"
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"en.20001212.6.2-095"2
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"Mr President, it is my turn to salute the President of the Commission, who is here, and the Presidency of the Council, which is coming, and to underline that there has probably never been such unanimity expressed in this Parliament on the results of a summit. This morning we heard every group speak of failure. If we look for the causes of that failure, the main reason seems to be that in Nice we saw the European project suffer a little more damage and the European dream recede a little further.
What is that dream about? It is not about a trading area. It is not even about a cooperation area. The European dream is about a continent with common values building itself into a political power. Put another way, it is about neighbours who regard each other as members of the same family, and decide to build a ship together to weather the storms. But that would mean recognising that the common project is more important than selfish interests. Now, in Nice – and this is the criticism we all have – the project was not being considered, only the interests were being considered. It is as if the ship were already built and we were at the stage of sharing out the cabins, the officers’ uniforms and the cargo. That explains why many of us found Nice heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking to see the debates concentrating on who would get one vote more or one vote less, and who would gain – Germany or France, the Netherlands or Belgium, Portugal or Spain. The only question that was never asked was whether or not Europe would gain. The results were heartbreaking. In future it will be necessary to assemble three different majorities for a decision to be taken – 75% of the votes, 50% of the Member States, and 62% of the populations. That is inexplicably Byzantine for the citizens. Heartbreaking results for the Commission which was regarded, not as the guardian of the general interest, but as yet another intergovernmental body, wrenched away from the collegiate rule and symbolically excluded from the ‘confessionals’. Heartbreaking results for Parliament: the refusal to see majority decisions seriously extended; the exclusion of Parliament from codecision and – I say this in passing – the shocking fact that the composition was fixed without Parliament even being consulted on that composition.
Finally and above all, heartbreaking results for the citizens, who find themselves excluded once and for all from these carpet salesmen’s debates about a Europe where they are condemned never to understand anything. The European dream must be relaunched and the European project rebuilt. That will be the whole purpose of the third stage, the new stage we are entering."@en1
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