Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-14-Speech-2-020"
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"en.20000314.3.2-020"2
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"Mr President, Mr Prodi’s Commission will not last for five years because people will not, in the longer term, put up with detailed regulation from Brussels. It is perhaps difficult to know who is going to provide the salutary shock, and when. That is often the case with historical new departures. Coincidences play their part and minor matters can suddenly loom large because small things come to symbolise what is fundamental. The fundamental paradox is that the Union identifies itself as being more and more democratic, at the same time as democracy is being quite systematically cut back in our countries. One day, the voters will echo the remark of the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, ‘Yes, but he is not wearing anything’. Last month, Mr Prodi talked of a radical decentralisation of the Union’s activities. In contrast, the five-year plan involves radical centralisation, through which responsibility for new legislative areas – of which there are many – will pass from the national and regional parliaments of the Member States to Mr Prodi’s Commission in Brussels, with legislation being adopted on the basis of 62 out of 87 votes in the Council. It is Orwellian to a T. Under the heading of ‘decentralisation’, centralisation is taking place. Under the heading of ‘democracy’, democracy is being dismantled. Under the heading of ‘greater transparency’, the Commission is proposing an arrangement through which documents that are at present available for public inspection will be locked away. When he took up office, Mr Prodi solemnly promised – before our Group and here in the House – a completely new approach to transparency. We were to be able to have access to any document, once the Commission had given it to others. The elected representatives of the people would no longer be the last to be informed. We should no longer have to sit in the committee rooms looking at the students from the Permanent Representations, in possession of documents to which we ourselves have no access. We should no longer have to tolerate a situation in which the employers in the European Union or the farming industry’s COPA can consult documents which we ourselves cannot obtain. It is fundamental to a democracy that the executive should serve the electorate and the electorate’s representatives. In the EU, the legislature has been transferred to the executive. The elected representatives of the people are awarded monopolies on power, while fundamental documents from the decision-making process are kept secret. At the Conference of the Presidents, we decided to summon the ombudsman and Mr Prodi to a discussion concerning transparency. I hope that Mr Prodi will say: ‘I am sorry, I was not aware that my officials were doing the opposite of what I had promised. I stand by my words. Here is my signature to the transparency that was promised’. Thank you, if there is, in fact, anything to say thank-you for."@en1
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