Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-221"
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"en.20060322.17.3-221"2
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".
Mr President, thank you for giving me the floor in what seems, at this stage in the evening, more like an open meeting of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, with some other Members very welcome to join us.
My group supports the report that has been put forward by our rapporteur, the Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee. As we have heard, it concerns adjustments to the system that we adopted over a year ago now. These adjustments are necessary because of the teething problems that we have discovered in operating the system. They are sensible and pragmatic and I would urge the Commission – for that parts of the report which are addressed to the Commission, such as those pertaining to the Financial Regulation – to take them up. Political parties are not NGOs, they are fulfilling a different role and they are vital for the functioning of our democratic system.
What we have set up and what we are hoping to improve is a system where we have – and the public can see that we have – a clear, transparent and fair system for funding the European level of work of political parties. This is something that recent events have shown is not always the case at national level. We should be proud that we are putting in place a sound structure at European level to finance the work of European political parties. It is important that we do so, because what political parties offer is choice to the voter, different visions, different programmes, different ideas, different proposals. It is that choice which gives life to political debate at European level.
It does one more thing: it shows that the choices we face at European level are really choices of policy, not choices between national viewpoints and national visions. All too often, the press, in focusing on European Council meetings, gives the impression of some gladiatorial combat between national interests. But the real choices we face are policy choices. Do you want higher environmental standards but at a greater cost or not? Do you want our markets to be a totally liberal free-for-all or to be regulated with protection for vulnerable people? These are all political decisions, political choices that are highlighted by political parties; they are often hidden away in the Council. That is essential for our Union to work effectively.
We already have ten parties registering. That shows that this system is working. There were some who claimed that this would only be financing the big parties. Well, some would say that ten parties is a very wide range of parties being financed.
There were those who are not here tonight – including Mr Hannan from the PPE-DE Group – who said that this was going to finance only pro-European parties, as if there were a rule that we could bias the funding towards a particular political viewpoint. This of course is not the case.
What we have seen and achieved and what we hope to improve is a sound system, one that is necessary and one that will enhance the quality of democratic debate at European level."@en1
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