Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-10-Speech-3-072"
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"en.20071010.17.3-072"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of the PSE Group, I would like to support this report. My group will be voting for it and we hope that this text that was adopted by a 70% majority in committee can now be endorsed by an equally impressive majority in Parliament as a whole.
The rapporteurs have – sensibly, in view of the legal constraints laid down by the new Treaty, in view of the time constraints laid down now before the conclusion of the IGC – focused on correcting the main anomalies in the current distribution of seats rather than embarking on proposing a radical overhaul of the system, which could only have led to deadlock in the IGC and endangered the approval and ratification of the new Treaty.
In particular, no Member State will see a reduction in the number of seats that it is entitled to under the current treaties where they provide for the distribution of seats from 2009 onwards – except, of course, where it is laid down in the Treaty itself for the Federal Republic of Germany. With that sole exception, no country will see a reduction compared to what is planned already in the Treaty for 2009.
Now, of course, some of our colleagues are trying to win more seats for their own Member State, sometimes arguing that their country’s population is suddenly much bigger than we had all assumed beforehand, bigger than the Eurostat figures that are used by everybody, including the Council.
Others are arguing, for reasons of national prestige, that they should have the same number of seats as another particular Member State. I must confess that I am very surprised at the attitude of the Italian Government. I understand that Mr Prodi, and indeed some Italian Members here, have been arguing that it is essential for Italy to have the same number of seats as France and the United Kingdom. Yet they accepted – we all accepted – the principle of proportional degression: proportional to population. I accept that my country will have one seat fewer than France although we have always had the same size up to now. I do not see why it should be so difficult for Italy as well to accept that it has fewer seats than France for exactly the same reason. And I am surprised that a government from a country that has so often said that it is the example to us all in terms of being
that it has a strong European commitment, that it is not nationalist, it always puts Europe before its national interests, that now Italy and Mr Prodi is arguing that Italy, for reasons of national prestige, should have the same number of seats as France and the UK, even though its population does indeed differ.
To conclude, may I urge that this House support this report, reject the amendments and send a clear strong message to the European Council."@en1
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