Outgoing Parliament : Did Europe deliver?

Sergio Cantone, euronews: “Welcome to you all to this special euronews event, a debate between the leaders of all the political groups in the European parliament.”

Dulce Dias, euronews: “Our guests are Monica Frassoni of the Greens, Nigel Farage from Independence and Democracy, Graham Watson of the European Liberal & Democratic Alliance, Cristiana Muscardini of the Union for a Europe of Nations, Martin Schulz for the Socialists, Francis Wurtz for the European United Left & Joseph Daul for the European Popular party.”

Sergio Cantone, euronews: “We’re going to talk about what this parliament has achieved. So, I’d like to start with the Greens’ Monica Frassoni. It seems to have been a very rich legislature seen from the point of view of ecological protection, with notable highlights like parliament’s adoption of measures to combat global warming, or the REACH directive on the chemical industry. You must be pretty satisfied with the last five years’ work, no?”

Monica Frassoni Greens/European Free Alliance: “It’s a legislature that has seen some important moments for environmentalists and ecologists around the world, but it’s also been a legislature of missed opportunities. The most important I think has surely been the failure of the European Constitution, which has an impact today on how the European Union works, and how it is seen by its citizens. So if I had to remember something about this legislature, it’s certainly the idea that we have to continue to fight for a democratic constitution for Europe. I’ll also remember some important victories, but there weren’t enough of them. We must continue in the future. We have hardly begun with the subject of ecological conversion, although the Climate package was adopted in December thanks to our contribution, and that’s a start.”

Francis Wurtz Gauche United European/Nordic Green Left: “I think the moment of truth is arriving, and that will be the Copenhagen summit at the end of the year. There are many forces at work using the crisis as an excuse to drag us backwards, and I think we have to be extremely careful that this global meeting isn’t a failure. We must remember the European Union’s ambition to be a sort of world example in the global warming battle. I think there’s a huge gap in the targets the EU agreed on in 2007, and the decisions taken by the 27 members in 2008. I think that in the first stage we were all satisfied, even if it didn’t go as far as we wanted. But in the second stage we were all disappointed.”

Martin Schulz, European Socialists: “The decisions we took in the climate package in December were, I believe, beyond all expectations, because not only parliament, but the Council & the Commission agreed. In my opinion one of the most important elements in the period now coming to an end is that the European Parliament, compared to the other EU institutions, has delivered results. They maybe haven’t been 100 satisfactory, but compared to the other institutions, it’s parliament that has been been acting.”

Sergio Cantone: “In the Popular party group we’ve seen several resumptions of infighting, and many contrasts. Not everyone has the same point of view on the sacrifices to be made, above all in the company sector, at a moment of economic crisis. Do you not think the crisis will lead to the revision of some things?”

Joseph Daul, European People’s Party/European Democrats: “Well, in our group we have always, on the one hand, looked at what we can do on the energy-climate question, while on the other, like for the REACH directive, counted the number of jobs we will lose. This is where we have to find the happy medium, and that is our group’s major worry.”

Cristiana Muscardini, Union for a Europe of the Nations: “I think that for the future of a Europe of Citizens we have to balance the interests of citizens and employers with the greater concern of climate change. I thought the mediation of Mr. Sarkozy when he was the EU’s president was good. We got some good results. There will be more things to do in the next legislature, but in any case as the current economic crisis grinds on we must, above all, look for solutions that are immediately effective for small & medium-sized companies.”

Dulce Dias, euronews: “Mr Watson, one of the other high points of this legislature was I believe the directive on the length of the working week. In this case did parliament prove to its citizens that they have a voice in European social policy?”

Graham Watson, Alliance of Liberals & Democrats for Europe: “Oh, absolutely. Parliament very successfully balanced the need not only for economic success but also social cohesion. I’d also like to include, because we have spoken of it, environmental responsibility. On the working week directive I’d like to say that’s more of a policy detail. What our citizens don’t always understand is that parliament is, by its nature, concerned with supranational issues. Challenges like climate change, world population & migration growth, or international organised crime & its links to terrorism. It’s challenges like these, the challenges of globalisation, that are at the heart of our debates.”

Sergio Cantone, euronews: “Mr. Farage, as we are talking about supranational challenges, what do you think when you hear the word? We need a more European dimension faced with these sorts of challenges, no? Is that what you think?”

Nigel Farage, Independence/Democracy: “Well, the problem is that there is a little word missing. It is called ‘democracy’. And the idea in democracy is that you vote for a government and if you think they’ve done a rotten job, every four or five years, depending on your rules, you get the opportunity to get rid of them and to vote for somebody else with an entirely different manifesto. That’s the concept that we understand in Britain of parliamentary democracy. And it is a concept that in fact we try to spread to the rest of the world. The difficulty with supranational government, the difficulty with climate change targets, is that if we sign up to the things that commit us between now and 2020, saying how we should behave, then we have to ask ourselves what is the point in voting in future in general elections in our nation states. And that, I think, gets to the very heart of the difficulty in the EU. You’ve got a political class around this table who believe in the European project, want to pursue it, believe that climate change is one of the great threats and yet increasingly a sceptical population.”

Sergio Cantone, euronews: “So you are against, for example, fighting climate change together on a European level? You believe this is completely wrong?”

Nigel Farage, Independence/Democracy: “Clearly, if CO2 emissions are causing global warming, then whatever Europe does is frankly irrelevant, frankly irrelevant. We have to deal with this taking into account what India or China and other countries are doing. So that’s the first point to make: there has to be a global deal if that’s our key concern. But what I’m concerned about, I’m concerned about government making commitments that are binding future governments between now and 2020, whatever that deal may be. And that goes against the very principle that we can get rid of our governments and vote for somebody else. And that is a very real risk.”

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tags: European elections