Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-05-Speech-3-366"
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"en.20100505.72.3-366"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin by saying that the decision we are taking on this occasion is not a light one. Firstly, we are revising the Treaty. Soon after it came into force, we are, for the first time, proposing a revision of the Treaty. This is no light matter.
Secondly, however, what we are doing is restoring, confirming and creating the chance for 18 MEPs, who would have had the right to take their seats if the Treaty had been approved before the elections, to exercise that right. Moreover, we are enabling 12 countries that have the right to rearrange their situation in this Parliament, because they have an agreement with the entire European Union that they should have greater representation than at present, to exercise that right. That is all this is about, but it is an important question.
Nevertheless, the Treaty itself requires that a Convention be held to revise the Treaty. The Council quite reasonably asks us if it is necessary to hold a Convention in order to ratify an agreement reached with all of the EU Member States. Parliament responds that there is no need. There is no need on this occasion.
It therefore mandates the Council to convene an Intergovernmental Conference and to revise the Treaty, thus giving rise to the possibility that the 27 countries ratify the revision, thereby enabling the 18 MEPs to come here and the 12 countries involved to attain their full level of parliamentary representation.
This is what we are dealing with, but there is a problem. To begin with, I would like to acknowledge the fact that we had some difficulty when it came to determining if those who are coming necessarily have to be directly elected for these seats, or if they can be elected in some other way.
I think that this problem that has come up, which must be examined and presented realistically, has been satisfactorily resolved. I wish to thank not only the rapporteur for the report, Mr Méndez de Vigo, but Mr Duff also, for the fact that we have managed to come to what is, in my view, a very important agreement among the three groups.
What we say is, yes, let the Treaty be revised, but without a Convention, so that a start can be made to the right to that confirmation. At the same time, however, this House would remind the national parliaments that they must send Members who have been directly elected to the European Parliament, and that here in Parliament we intend to carry out a revision of the European electoral system in order to endow the European electoral model with a unified, supranational system for electing its Members.
I am delighted that these two considerations have enabled a balance to be struck, so that this matter can be reopened."@en1
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