Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-03-12-Speech-2-673-000"
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"en.20130312.52.2-673-000"2
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"Mr President, I am afraid I am going to join the broad consensus and welcome this report and congratulate the rapporteurs on an excellent job. It was not easy, but they came up – as others have said – with a pragmatic, workable solution which enables us to reach a position in time for next year’s European elections.
But as others have rightly said, it is a temporary solution and the report recognises that in 2015 we have to come up with a more long-term solution that can apply to all circumstances, so that we do not have to negotiate between Member States; we do not need to tick off one and pick another Member State in terms of an extra Member and, as we have just heard from other speakers, this has to be based on the Treaty’s call for degressive proportionality.
So we need a mathematical system which applies every time the membership of Parliament changes. That will not be easily achieved and I hope that the Committee on Constitutional Affairs will start work on this early in the next Parliamentary term, so we are not in this position next time and having to make a pragmatic solution a year before the election.
Finally, if I might say so Mr President, despite what Mr Agnew said, the other recommendation is that the European elections should be held between the 22 and 24 May 2014; that is a Thursday to a Sunday, so there is no threat to Britain’s right to vote on a Thursday. I hope, having had this endorsement from the Council, that the Member States will now get on and ratify those dates for the election."@en1
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