Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-15-Speech-1-027"
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"en.20070115.9.1-027"2
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".
Mr President
Romania; добър ден, Bulgaria; welcome, and let me, as the longest-serving Member, show you the House from the inside. 84 % of German laws come from Brussels – an alarming lack of democracy and a de facto suspension of the separation of powers, in the words of Roman Herzog, the former President of Germany. Unfortunately, he is right.
If the EU had to apply for EU membership, it would be told, ‘sorry, solve your democratic deficit first’. The core of democracy is normally to hold elections, to have a new majority and then new laws. This core can hardly be found here. Therefore, Romanian and Bulgarian friends, you enter a Parliament with no vivid debates and a planned coronation of our next President.
Welcome to the waste of 22 working days, 50 extra hotel bills, EUR 250 million spent on the travelling circus between Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels, and welcome to the 5 500 votes in a year where it is difficult to know exactly what you voted for.
The D’Hondt system will prevent you from having the most interesting posts and reports. In your committees, young assistants and trainees from the Council will sit behind you with all the secret legislative documents you are not allowed to read. The EU has more than 90 000 pages of law – red tape – which you can never amend as an elected Member of this Parliament. To change anything, you need to go to someone who is not elected. Of 480 million citizens, only the 27 non-elected Commissioners are allowed to put forward proposals for a new law or an amendment to an existing law.
In 2005, we decided more than 3000 different rules in the EU, applying codecision in only 57 cases. Most rules are decided by civil servants in 300 secret working groups in the Council, prepared by another 3000 secret working groups in the Commission.
Dear new colleagues, welcome to a fight for transparency, proximity and democracy. My welcome gift is this new orange handbook with a long list of victories for transparency and a longer list of current tasks. Members from all groups and independents have prepared a ‘fair chair’ programme for our next President. We could simply have one major seat, cut the travelling circus, introduce vivid debates, vote on major issues and change the D’Hondt system into a fairer system to avoid discrimination against smaller delegations in the big groups, against the smaller groups and against the independents. One million citizens have signed a petition in favour of one place of work, and Mr Poettering will not even allow us to debate the one-seat petition. It is a secret vote tomorrow; use your first vote at 10 o’clock to show your support for one seat and a fair chair.
Mr Borrell, tomorrow you will have the opportunity to change this system. Thank you very much, Mr President."@en1
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"bună seara"1
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