The future of Europe is ours to determine

Speech by Graham Watson MEP, Leader of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Group in the European Parliament delivered to ELDR Rally, Zaventem on Thu 29th Apr 2004

Je me rappelle d'un événement, il y a 25 ans dans un aéroport à Luxembourg. Je me retrouve souvent dans les aéroports, mais rarement pour des congrès politiques. J'étais délégué de Lymec et je suis heureux de voir tellement de jeunes.

Werner, thank you for bringing us together once more in such style. It is my great privilege to be here among those who build Liberalism in the European Union.

In Berlin in 1999, Pat Cox launched our manifesto for the European elections by calling on European Liberalism to seize the moment and take the lead.

In five years we've not looked back.

We've broken the mould in the European Parliament. We've seen Pat Cox elected as the Parliament's first activist President in two decades - and we've not looked back.

In 1999 we said we wanted more accountability in the European Union. We helped write tough new standards at the ECB and the Commission.

We said we wanted a European Parliament that was the guardian of the people's purse. This year, thanks to a Liberal draftsman we got the most rigorous EU budget in a decade.

We said we wanted strong new protections for European consumers and we won tougher labelling standards for tobacco and genetically modified food.

And when every other political group in the European Parliament was split, we said we wanted an enlarged Europe, made whole again after six decades of communism and cold war, and we got it.

The duty - the moral imperative - of enlargement lies in closing a wound on this continent that has disfigured it for half a century. On May the first, Europe will be healed. With 10 new countries and 3 more on the way, European history will be made and we helped make it.

And this is just the beginning.

After twenty years of backroom dealing between the left and right, European Liberals have put the politics back in Brussels and it is there to stay.

We will not allow the European Parliament to be bounced into another grand coalition between the Socialists and the Christian Democrats. While the right and left are dividing up the pie in Brussels to suit themselves, Europeans are asking for a political alternative. We will provide it.

We'll not be bounced by Christian Democrats into nodding through their candidate for President of the European Commission just because the EPP assume they will be the largest group in the Parliament. We want the best candidate, and one who can speak for all of us.

We will go on and on punching above our weight in European's parliament.

We'll get a reformed European economy - with more and better jobs, and investment in innovation and enterprise. We'll fight for the freedom to move in search of work and to work the hours you choose. Frits Bolkestein has been our ally at the European Commission.

We'll get a Europe that is safer and more secure because it puts cooperation in the fight against international crime and terrorism above the downright dangerous habits of secretive and selfish national sovereignty. My predecessor Gijs de Vries now leads the fight for this in Council.

We'll take another big step down the road towards a genuine European environmental policy that makes the EU the world leader in sustainable development.

And we'll fight for a European Constitution that makes Europe stronger at home and stronger abroad. With a Bill of Rights that will make our political contract the envy of the world.

And in June we will get bigger. European Liberalism is a growing family and a growing movement. Our principles -so relevant to the challenge of the 21st Century- have found a new appeal which will can send many new MEPs to Brussels in June.

With new strength from the new member states and new talent from the old we can and will be the European political alternative. We can and we will make a difference.

Our ranks may well be swollen by refugees from other parts of the political jungle. Let us welcome them. They come not only out of despair of developments elsewhere but out of determination to build with us a dynamic new centre to take Europe forward.

These elections are an open microphone. For the next six weeks we have a chance to raise the level of debate on Europe. With enlargement and a new constitution - Europeans are listening.

These European elections have to be about Europe's added value. About the freedom and prosperity it guarantees at home and the strength it promises abroad.

We cannot let these European elections be simply another chance to deliver punches in domestic politics. When they try to change the subject away from Europe - we have to change it back.

More than any other political movement, European Liberalism argues for a different Europe, a strong and reformed Europe.

Europe can only be built on the foundation of public comprehension and trust. Good politics is an act of education and engagement. The best politics has always challenged opinions and changed minds, not flattered the fear of change.

Nobody pretends the EU is perfect. That is why we are a party of reform. But because we know the value of Europe, we fix what doesn't work - we don't simply throw it away.

The duty of the activist is to engage. And for the next six weeks we are all activists - every one of us.

Fellow Liberals, I commend to you this afternoon our candidates for the European elections in June. For the next six weeks these women and men will be the public face of our movement and the public expression of our values. We are proud of you all.

I commend to you our manifesto. It commits us to freeing Europe's potential.

Fellow Europeans. It is our good luck to live in interesting times. As campaigners and as citizens, the future of Europe is written into the lives of everyone of us.

The future of Europe is ours to determine.

It is with Europe's Liberals that challenge lies.

It is with Europe's Liberals that responsibility rests.

It is with Europe's Liberals that hope resides!

Good luck!