NEWS | Wednesday, 14 May 2008

Transparency discussed in MEP’s final speech

Thursday, MEP Jens-Peter Bonde officially withdrew from his seat in Parliament to allow Hanne Dahl in his stead. His position as ID Group Co-President will be taken over by Kathy Sinnott, the Irish MEP who fervently campaigns against the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. Bonde’s departing words at his reception Wednesday centred on his achievements in the fight for democracy and transparency.
“May I thank all of you for good battles on constitutions and referendums and good cooperation in our joint fight for transparency,” he told the parliament. Jens-Peter talked at length about how the EP changed in the past 29 years and how he himself has changed with it.
“When I started as rapporteur for the Parliament’s budget, all group leaders were on the front line of cheating… Nowadays group leaders are on the front line of cleaning the house even if we have had a set-back on members’ assistants” was a comparison he made. He then proceeded to note the speed of the progress the camp of democracy made in the EP.
“It took Santer four years to deliver the internal telephone book, which was secret until then. It took Prodi four years to deliver the full agendas and minutes of Commission meetings. It took Barroso one day to deliver a list of 3.094 secret working groups in the Commission - and over four years to deliver the names of the advisors.” He acknowledged the need to cooperate for this purpose – no one can change the system for the better alone: “Such victories were only possible because we cooperated across political lines. In the Convention I had the signatures of 23 governments, every single MP and every MEP except one, for a very simple proposal to turn the procedure on transparency”.
Bonde also noted: “All European laws have to be decided by a majority in the Parliament and secret legislation by civil servants and lobbyists must stop. All meetings and documents have to be open and transparent unless we decide on derogation.
“When I looked at the EU from the outside I became very critical towards the leaders. When I saw the systems from the inside I realised that even the best Commission presidents are governed by their services. They are much nicer than they behave. After 37 years of being critical of the EU, I have become more critical towards the structures and more friendly towards the persons in the system.”