To: Electronic Telegraph <et.letters@telegraph.co.uk> Re: A constitution for a European Federation: German President's speech to the European Parliament Date: Fri, 6 April 2001 |
Dear Sir/Madam, So where was your German or Europe correspondent the other day when the German President, Johannes Rau, made his historic speech to the European Parliament? I didn’t find a single mention of it in the Telegraph.
Was this because your correspondents were asleep, or because President Rau’s ideas on a constitution for a European Federation were so reasonable, attractive and contrary to how you like to portray German intentions, that they undermine your paper’s policy of rubbishing anything that could strengthen Britain’s ties with the Continent?
You seem to think that the more involved Britain gets with Europe, the more it will weaken our ties with America. I disagree entirely: with Britain firmly in Europe we will be in the best possible position to keep Europe and America together – where they belong.
Allow me to quote a few of the things he said (expect for the
first quote and what I have otherwise placed in square brackets, I have simply
copied the translation I found on the German President’s homepage:
http://www.bundespraesident.de
“The diversity of our cultural wealth must not become a
play thing or victim of uniformisation by global media
interests.” “[A] European constitution [would not be] the "final
touch" of the European structure, it must become its foundation. The
European constitution should prescribe that Europe will not become a centralized
super state but, rather, that we are building a federation of nation
states.” “According to one argument against a constitution which
is frequently put forward, every additional step in the integration process
is a further step towards a European "super state" and towards the
abolition of nation states. But
those, like me, who support a federation of nation states, want quite the
opposite!” “No-one wants to do away with the nation states and their
sovereignty. On the contrary, we will need them and their distinctness for a
good while yet, as guardians of diversity in Europe.” “We should endeavour to anchor the principle of subsidiarity on a broader basis: only those matters should be decided at European level which the member states cannot better deal with themselves. That must be our guiding principle!”
The
principle of “subsidiarity” (i.e. of devolving decisions to the lowest
practical level) is very important, not only within Europe, but also with
Britain itself. |