EL PARTIDO VERDE EUROPEO SE POSICIONA SOBRE LA CONSTITUCIÓN EUROPEA

17-Febrero-2005

ESTA TARDE EL PARTIDO VERDE EUROPEO DA SU APOYO A LA CONSTITUCION EUROPEA.

En el día de hoy se está celebrando en Bruselas una importante reunión del Consejo del Partido Verde Europeo, con la finalidad de decidir la postura oficial de mismo ante la Constitución europea.
Esta mañana tuvo lugar la intervención de Amalia Bosch Benítezco-portavoz de Los Verdes y en representación de ellos que abogó por un respaldo del Partido Verde Europeo al texto constitucional (se adjunta en discurso integro de Amalia).
El resultado de la votación ha sido 51 votos a favor del texto constitucional y 7 en contra.
El Partido Verde Europeo apoyará por tanto, el texto constitucional

INTERVENCIÓN DE AMALIA ANTE EL CONSEJO DEL PARTIDO VERDE EUROPEO
Hello,
My name is Amalia Bosch, I?m the cospeaker of the Spanish Greens. I attended the past Council of the Greens in Dublin and since then we have been discussing our position on the European Constitution. Months have past and I have the impression that we haven?t done any progress at all.
I?ve been reading carefully the papers presented by Danemark, Ireland and the United Kingdom about their opposition to the Constitution, and I have been reading the German paper explaining their Yes to the Constitution and I have to disagree with both positions. Not because of their conclusions, that is Yes or No, but because of their approach to the Constitution.
If you read the resolutions that support the NO one can see there is common critics about the lack of Green lines in this Constitution. Their arguments always say ?we Greens are a party working for peace and disarmament?, ?we Greens cannot support liberalizations or oligopolies? (Danemark) or in the case of Ireland reminding us of the added value of diversity and the respect for minority opinions? or in the case of the Unietd Kingdom stating that ?there is agreement that this Constitution is not a green document?.
And YES I agree with this last conclusion ?it is not a Green Document? and I have to add to this statement - THANKS GOD.
Because all your critics to the constitutional texts are OK but you seem to forget that we are voting not a Green Document but a Constitution. What is a Constitution? Can a Constitution be either Green, Red or Blue? Can you reject a Constitution because it is not Green? NO, definitely NO. We are here not at the University analising, interpreting the encoded ideology of a Constitution. That can lead us to organize several conferences on the subject and everybody would come up with a different result; we shall not be acting as researchers and analysers of a Constitutional text, we have already done it, you have explained your motions, your conclusions telling us that it is not a Green document. But what the society is asking from us is not that we tell them what they already know: that it is not a Green document.... what they are asking from us is that we state a clear position of feasibility. Can we European citizens fight for our rights with this new Constitution? The answer is YES. Can we European citizens live in peace and freedom wiht this new Constitution? The answer is Yes. Does the new Constitution state the objective of sustainable development in the interior and external market? YES. Can a member state implement its enviromental legislation if it offers a better protection against contamination than the European legislation? YES (arts. III 172. 4- III 233.2 ? III 234.6). Will there be any visible change in the economic politics of the Union? NO, it is neoliberal now and it will stay that way with this Constitution?
So if you put yourself into the shoes of any citizen of the Union and he asks you: can I go on with my life as it is now with this Constitution? Your answer can only be YES. This Constitution is not a significant change, we are not taking away liberties and rights of the citizens, on the contrary, we are guaranteing them. You may say also to this citizen, ?we Greens think and believe that it is not a Green document, but please vote Yes to the Constitution, because it is the frame that allows us to vote against new rules and laws in the European Parlament?.
We Greens represent a minority of the political parties in the Union, what kind of democracy are we putting forward if we said, everybody shall be against this Constitution because it is not a Green one, because it doesn?t fullfil the ideas of the Green movement? Please, don?t act as a totalitary party, don?t impose your criteria to the rest of the world. We shall be acting in a responsible way here in Brussels because we are the Council of a EGP. The citizens would like to here our opinions but they would not understand that we say no to a Constitution because ?it is not Green?. The Socialist and the Conservatie Parties are saying Yes, not because the Constitution is socialist or conservative, but because it allows many different cultures to live together in a new invented Union of citizens. That is why we Greens should recognize that this Constitution allows the existence of many political parties, not only Green parties, gives civil rigths to citizens of new member states, where these rights were unexistent. This Constitution will allow the market to go on like it is now, perhaps we don?t like it but that is life. And we should learn to be tolerant with other political views and able to fight them in the political arena. But before your should have an arena.
Some of the older member states do have a real tough political on military rearmament (France, United Kingdom) among others. Do you English Greens have succeded in stopping the invasion of Irak allowed by your government? Should we therefore, European Citizens, start a referendum to separate you from our peaceful Green movement because you are not strong enough? Or should I be insulted because the former Spanish government supported the war against Irak?
This is not the question, you will say. And I will say too that this is not the question if we are talking about the European Constitution. This war happened and it is still going on, even though we belong to democratic countries with democratic Constitutions. Is this Constitution different than ours? NO. So if you can live with your own local and national Constitution with its lacks and miseries, please allow us to live in this new Europe with this new Constitution with its lacks and miseries.
Tell the citizens that we will support the new Constitution, because it is a document that allows ?diversity as a value, whatever the dimension considered ?biological, economic, social, cultural, spiritual?. This is a Green Value as Ireland reminded us. This a quote of the European Green Charter submitted to the 1st EGP Council in Dublin, NO 26 2004. This Constitution is a bit conservative, a bit socialist, a bit nationalist, a bit green, and a bit stupid too, but we can put up with it as well as we do with our own Constitution, and that is why we the European Green Party, the only European Party in this old Europe shall say YES to the Constitution, because above all, we are not only a political party but a party of European citizens...