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Ludford hopes new Commission President will stand up for Europe
July 22, 2004 12:00 AM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in European Parliament
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in European Parliament
Sarah Ludford MEP in the plenary chamber of the European Parliament
Madam President, I wish to begin by expressing my pleasure at speaking for the first time in this Chamber as a Member of the expanded Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. I am extremely pleased at this development.
Mr Barroso, I admit I was somewhat prejudiced before I heard you. You were appointed through a process of rather squalid intergovernmental bargaining, which was not very impressive. I was not keen on your enthusiasm for the Iraq war, which I regard as misguided and illegal. However, I have been favourably impressed by your presentational and communication skills and your clear attachment to a successful Europe and a strong European Commission. I am also impressed by your assertion that you intend not to be beholden to the Member States and in particular that you do not want super-Commissioners. I will therefore vote for you.
However, I am wondering how consistent and truly reliable you will prove. For instance, you say you will strive for eight or nine women Commissioners, which, of course, I support. But what will you do if the UK insists on appointing Peter Mandelson, France Jacques Barrot, Germany Günter Verheugen, and Italy Mario Monti? What will you do if the smaller countries say that, as you have failed to change the gender of these big boys, why should we carry out the sex-change operation? Everyone wants gender balance in theory, but finds a pretext to fail to deliver it in practice. I wish you every ounce of conviction and determination on this issue, but I will watch with interest to see the outcome.
I cannot quite marry your concern for women with what is happening in Portugal, where some women are being prosecuted for carrying out abortions. In a situation where the Bush administration has withdrawn funding for international organisations on women's reproductive health if they even include abortion advice in their functions, it is crucial that the new Commission carries on the work led by Poul Nielson of substituting EU funding for the American cuts. This means standing up to George Bush. I hope we can rely on you.
Secondly, I worry that you will be all things to all people. You describe yourself as a centrist, a reformer and a Social Democrat, but you belong to the conservative group. You somewhat remind me of your mate Tony Blair. I am not sure in what political direction you are really heading. Pragmatism has its virtues, but we need to know the hard political choices that you will make when the chips are down and the principles that you will not compromise on.
Lastly, I hope we can rely on you in the field of civil liberties and human rights. Your compatriot, Mr Vitorino, did a great job and, on the whole, struck the right balance between freedom and security. However, there are ever-increasing pressures to sacrifice personal freedom to the quest for security, to compromise our humanitarian obligations to refugees and to fail to integrate legal immigrants.
The European Union failed to take a united stand on Guantánamo Bay. I hope we can rely on you to prioritise civil liberties and human rights in the future.
What would you like to do next?
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