Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-12-Speech-1-027"
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"en.20030512.5.1-027"2
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"Mr President, thank you for allowing me to speak briefly on the subject of your statement on Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen’s mandate. Mr Le Pen has been a Member of this House for almost 20 years.
I have to say, Mr President, that I regret the decision you have taken, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the judgment you referred to is not final – as you said, moreover – it is likely to be appealed against, indeed it was appealed against last Friday, and I therefore feel that it might have been better for Parliament not to act immediately on a judgment of the Court of First Instance which is not final.
Secondly, as is clear from your own statement, Mr President, and nobody would dispute this, Jean-Marie Le Pen was a Member of the European Parliament until 10 April 2003 pursuant to a judgment of the President of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities. For him no longer to be a Member of the European Parliament, it is necessary to reestablish the disqualification from holding office imposed by the French Government, a disqualification based on ineligibility for office which came to an end two and a half years ago. Since 24 November 2000, Mr Le Pen has enjoyed full civic rights once again, as, moreover, was shown by his candidacy for the French Presidential elections, to which there was no objection.
I therefore believe that, in this judicial proceeding, Parliament should not be opposed to Jean-Marie Le Pen but stand by him, whatever one might think of his political views, for, in the future, any Member might fall victim to persecution from a government and might be forced to relinquish their office by a mere government decision. I am surprised that even minimal evaluation by Parliament of these decisions is not possible.
For these reasons, Mr President, and for others relating to the breach of provisions of internal French law, specifically the French penal code, and to the application of older texts, specifically the 1977 act, which, in my opinion, is completely inapplicable in this case since it relates to a period when Members of the European Parliament were not elected by direct universal suffrage but were members of national parliaments, I believe that this complex issue should have been, and still ought to be, referred to the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, which is the only committee currently competent in matters of verification of credentials, pursuant to Rule 7 of the Rules of Procedure."@en1
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