Philip Claeys, on behalf of the ITS Group. – (NL) Mr President, I can only conclude that, in an official report, this House too now quite clearly admits what everyone has been able to establish following the European Summit of Brussels, namely that the European Constitution, which was rejected by the Dutch and French voters and which, as a result, from a strictly legal perspective, could never enter into force again, is being retained and introduced almost in its entirety via legal-political tricks.

The tactics of surreptitiously pushing through sections of this Constitution, which was a pursuit that caught on even after the French and Dutch referendums in all manner of ways – just think of the Charter of Fundamental Rights that was made binding even though the document is non-binding – are now also being adopted in official European policy. This Parliament would not be this Parliament if it did not, according to age-old traditions, draw a distinction between the so-called ‘good’ Member States, those who glorify the federal creed and walk the federal path unquestioningly, and the so-called ‘bad’ Member States.

The height of cynicism, however, is of course the call of this House – and I quote verbatim – ‘to get the European citizen involved again in the continuation of the constitutional process’. In reality, what this House has done in many reports, starting with the infamous Duff–Voggenhuber report, is sweep the result of the French and Dutch referendums off the table. This House could not care less about what the public wants, the very people it claims to represent. This House is slowly but surely turning into the very opposite of anything related to real democracy.

(Applause from the right)