Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-16-Speech-2-021"
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"en.20031216.1.2-021"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, nothing surprises me any more since I have been sitting in this Assembly. At least, that is what I used to think, because this morning I confess I am surprised, but not at the outcome of the Brussels European Council or the failure of the Intergovernmental Conference. I have said on a number of occasions, including here, that I never imagined for one second that the Heads of State or Government, who represent the highest democratic authority in the Union, could reasonably agree to the draft European Constitution prepared by the Convention as it stands, without amending it – at least that is what the ukases of the majority of this Parliament wanted.
No, what surprises me is the behaviour of the federalist majority here present, whose blindness it must be said is beyond understanding. You never question yourselves. I have not heard one of you say: ‘Perhaps we were mistaken. We must have gone the wrong way.’ No. You persist, you sign, as if nothing had happened. Better still, like worthy followers of poor Lysenko, you look for someone to take the blame for your failure. Like all fanatics, you want heads to roll. But if you look things calmly in the face, you will see that the cause of this fiasco is not the Italian Presidency, whose excellent work I commend in passing, nor the attitude of some Member States, who have courageously defended their national interests as their peoples demanded, but quite simply our Convention and its incredible draft constitution. Noble as it may have been, this project was doomed before it even saw the light of day, because it ran radically counter to European political reality, a reality which, whether you like it or not, continues to be determined by the existence of peoples and nations.
In rejecting a division of power based on the federal model, Spain and Poland have rendered Europe a great service by finally saying out loud what many others have been quietly thinking for months, namely that the old Europe of Jean Monnet inherited from the division agreed in Yalta is dead and gone. Do not persist in trying to resurrect a federalism that is a thing of the past. Unlike the chairman of the Convention, the draft constitution is not immortal, so let it rest in peace. Let us rather take the opportunity that is given to us of laying the foundations of a new Europe, one which has rediscovered its natural borders. Let us build a political Europe which, while never denying its history and taking into account the constraints of modernity, tends towards an ideal of freedom and not of uniformity."@en1
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