Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

Tá áthas orm a bheith anseo aríst, ag caint faoi Bhunreacht na hEorpa. Tá sé ríthábhachtach go bhfuil an Seanad ag filleadh ar an cheist seo. Tá a fhios againn go bhfuil daoine áirithe taobh amuigh den Teach seo ag iarraidh an obair a dhein na Feisirí Parlaiminte sa choinbhinsiún a bhréagnú agus a mhaslú. Ní ghlacaim leis sin ar chor ar bith. Ghlac gach éinne den 200 Feisire lán-pháirt sna díospóireachtaí agus na comhréiteacha polaitiúla a cuireadh i gcrích.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

The European Convention was made up of approximately 200 democratically-elected politicians from around Europe and from all political persuasions. Indeed, it included representatives of the social partners, the Commission, 28 governments and the European ombudsman. It reached a broad consensus which governments largely accepted and signed off on 12 months later. Decisions were not made by voting but by reaching a broad consensus through a process of exhaustive and, in many cases, exhausting discussion and negotiation in plenary sessions, in working groups and within each of the political families that participated in the Convention. The size of the Convention and the broadness of the consensus can be gauged by the fact that a Eurosceptical alternative document was signed by a mere eight participants out of over 200 who participated, one of whom, unfortunately, happened to be an Irishman.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

It is also important to bear in mind that what we have in this text is the consolidated text of five or six treaties. This text runs to 500 pages, half of which consist of protocols and declarations. The actual constitutional text is approximately half of that. What we have is a consolidation of existing treaties. Some 95% of that text is the existing treaty, so what we are asking the people of Ireland and of Europe to agree to is 5% of that text.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

The new element of that document is approximately 5% and it includes stating the values and the objectives of the Union, incorporating rights for the citizens of Europe, making various institutional changes to improve the effectiveness of how we make decisions, improving the democratic legitimacy of the decisions we make by giving a greater role to national parliaments and the European Parliament, and obliging the Ministers we send to Councils to meet openly and to discuss openly when making legislation.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

We in the Convention addressed all the questions the Laaken declaration obliged us to address, including the question as to whether powers which the European Union currently exercises should be dropped and left to the member states to implement. The Convention decided that was not a good thing to do but it also decided no new powers should be given to the European Union. Consequently, the constitutional text does not include new powers for the European Union to exercise exclusively. It places new responsibilities on the Union, on its various institutions, on the national parliaments, including the Oireachtas, and on the European Parliament by doubling the number of areas in which it must make legislation in co-decision with the Council. It also places new responsibilities on the Commission and, indeed, on the Council, as I indicated.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

We also believed efficiency was not good enough on its own and that if it was not accompanied by transparency and democratic accountability, it would not achieve the legitimacy with the citizens which is clearly needed. We consequently incorporated a whole range of innovations for a unique transnational organisation of sovereign states. A whole section of the constitution deals with the democratic life of the Union. No other organisation, including the WTO, the UN, the IMF, the World Bank or the Council of Europe, has a directly-elected parliament which shares the making of laws which apply to the entire Union and which oblige and give power to the national parliaments to challenge legally if they so choose. No other treaty provides, as a right, for the direct consultation of civil society organisations, including religious and non-religious organisations. Subsidiarity is now legally binding on all EU institutions.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

This constitutional treaty is a significant step forward in the democratic accountability of its decision making and of the quality of its choices and in the recognition that neither man nor woman lives by bread alone. This document is a coming of age for Europe. It is not a cause for anxiety or fear as some seek to pretend for narrow electoral advantage. It is a cause for hope and optimism. It gives us a framework in which to pursue democratically our respective objectives within the context of Europe's unique social model.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

We live in a world which is globalising everything except justice and democracy. In this constitution we seek to reverse that trend. It is not a perfect document. There are things in it I do not like and things not in it I would have liked. However, it is an honest compromise between different firmly held political convictions and it is a framework for me, as a person of the left, to argue and promote my politics and for those of the right to argue theirs and to seek through democratic mandate to pursue their politics.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

In his book, The Age of Consent, George Monbiot said:

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

Everything has been globalised except our consent. Democracy alone has been confined to the nation state. It stands at the national border, suitcase in hand, without a passport.

Proinsias De Rossa, MEP:

I believe this constitution provides a passport for European democracy.