Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-05-Speech-3-100"
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"en.20031105.7.3-100"2
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"Commissioner, permit me to put your comments in a context less formal than this one. You have told us that it is not necessary to ask the turkey to prepare for Christmas, and that is what we are in the process of verifying. The IGC has reached the limits of its powers. For this Parliament, the essential thing now is to preserve the balance that has been achieved within the Convention. I prefer the word ‘balance’ rather than ‘compromise’. It seems to me that if there is a Convention spirit, a European spirit reigning over this IGC, I would hope that it is that spirit which enables us to identify the listening phase that we are passing through now as being the phase that allows us to confirm the fact that, if we all pursue our individual arguments to their logical conclusion, our collective decision-making process will reach an impasse. If that is the case, and if this listening phase is simply there so that we can all pursue our arguments to their logical conclusion in order to confirm the fact that we are moving towards an impasse, then there is still some hope for us.
On the other hand, I am afraid that, if we do not manage to take that step, we shall risk slipping backwards. You know that in my country the debate is becoming heated. In my party, some people have already decided to say yes, while others have already decided to say no, and some people prefer to wait and see. In the final analysis there could be a move away, not just from the text of the Convention, but also from the Treaty of Nice, as regards qualified majority voting, the powers of Parliament on budgetary matters or the introduction of a threshold of 66% of the population as the definition of a qualified majority. Quite frankly, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, what we want is for this IGC to concentrate on the issues that really are on the agenda, and those subjects, as Mr Napolitano has reminded us, are the subjects which the Convention has not dealt with, in other words the fourth part. On this point, I am very fearful of the status quo. There seems to be a certain degree of audacity, and it lies precisely in the balance of the proposed Convention. That audacity is to use the bridging clause as a revision clause. What I would suggest to both of you is that you should examine the option of inserting a third subparagraph into Article IV-7.3, which would be worded – at least in spirit, though the legal form would have to be confirmed – as follows, ‘The European Council, on its own initiative or at the request of the European Parliament, may decide unanimously to authorise the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the amendments to be made to the Treaty establishing the Constitution by a super-qualified majority and to make provision for its ratification under the same conditions’."@en1
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