Promote EU benefits, Barroso tells leaders
30/06/2005 - 15:10:52European leaders were today urged to use the period of reflection following ‘no’ votes on the constitution to “sell” the EU to its citizens.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso called for “dialogue and democracy” at a meeting of the National Forum on Europe in Dublin today.
“The period of reflection we are about to enter is not some cosmetic exercise designed to lull the public into quiet acquiescence on the constitution.
“It is vital that we reconnect with our citizens and stimulate a genuine, wide-ranging – but focused – debate.”
Mr Barroso pledged the ‘no’ votes in France and Holland would be respected, and said: “There will be no constitution through the back door.”
But he said he did not have an alternative to the current constitution, which he described as the “best possible compromise” and said the ‘no’ vote was the result of context and not the text itself.
He defended the document against criticisms levelled at it by the ‘no’ camp pointing out it had an explicit social clause and saying it went a long way to resolving “the democratic deficit” which Europe’s institutions have been accused of.
He also said it was a “massive simplification exercise” of existing treaties and legislation.
He told the meeting, attended by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, opposition leader Enda Kenny and a number of ministers, politicians and leaders of trade unions and the business community, that Europe had a problem which must be faced.
He said leaders of national governments had a role to play in selling the EU to their citizens.
“As a former Prime Minister myself, I am only too aware of the temptation to take credit for anything good done at the European level, while blaming Brussels for anything bad, but this has to stop,” he said.
He also criticised British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s attempts to reopen negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy and said a budget must be agreed if Europe was to move forward.
And he also had a stark warning for those who sought to reject the European project.
What was Europe 60 years ago? he asked.
“It was Auschwitz, it was the Holocaust, the worst pages of the history of mankind were written in Europe in that war,” he said.
Fifteen years ago the Baltic countries were occupied by the former Soviet Union and 10 years ago Europe was facing the reality of Srebrenica. Europe had come a long way as a result of the union, he said.
“Ireland counts much more now than before becoming part of the EU,” he added.
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