Speech at the Parliamentary Forum

Speech by Graham Watson MEP on Tue 5th Dec 2006

Mr Speaker, Prime Ministers, Messieurs les Présidents,

This Forum is the place for progress and for debate. Because demand for Europe is growing just as some governments' commitment to Europe is stalling.

Here we have begun to determine what the parameters of a solution can be.

Leadership is needed and we have heard for too long that it is about to occur spontaneously.

We in Europes' Parliaments no longer urge, but require the European Council to address the constitutional crisis seriously.

Mr Barroso, you said that June's Council meeting "marked the shift from the period of reflection to a period of more active engagement" and argued "we are back on track"

Liberals and Democrats do not share your views that the process is 'back on track'. We believe there's a long way yet to go. Indeed, Mr Barroso, you later admitted: "we need a much stronger effort to convince."

That effort must come essentially from national capitals; and especially from Paris, London, W arsaw and The Hague.

We applaud the Finnish Presidency for its efforts and Mr Vanhanen for his leadership in securing ratification of the Constitution in Helsinki.

The three subjects debated yesterday in the Working Groups show the potential of the European Union.

Conflict prevention needs to be done at the Union level if it is to provide maximum effectiveness at minimum cost. Until we sort through the 'organised confusion' that reigns between NATO and the EU, we will remain a limited player.

On the energy front, security of supply, liberalisation of provision and sustainability of usage are policies that are best developed at the strategic level. And energy policy needs instruments to make it happen, not some catch all article of the current treaty which excludes the European Parliament and needs unanimity for any decisions.

But all these policies require funding, and as our third working group demonstrated, this is not going to be easy. No increase in budget is yet foreseen.

At times, it is important to stand back and ask "how did we get this far?". Was it through limiting budgets whilst increasing responsibilities? Was it by devising complex formulae in order to get the juste retour? Whatever happened to solidarity?

I believe that when historians look back on this age, they will conclude that the European Union was the only significant political idea to emerge from Western Europe in the past half-century.

As Romano Prodi said recently of the Constitutional Convention and the text it produced "everyone came out as winners, because everyone agreed to give up something". Watering it down is not going to work. So let us try something courageous together.