European Parliament
Bernard Poignant (PSE ). –
(FR)
Mr President, I could have been Austrian because I come from a region – Brittany – in which, in the 15th century, the daughter of the Duke was married to Maximillian of Austria. However, the marriage was unconsummated and broken off, which makes me a sixteenth generation French citizen.
I used this historical reference for the purposes of capturing your attention and of illustrating a strong argument regarding the budget. Firstly, be wary of this Parliament because it is a parliament under construction, and therefore it sometimes rebels: Mr Buttiglione did not bow down to the criticism made of him. As for the dockworkers: the intention is to serve us up the same old menu, but we are not going to eat from it and we are going to cast a simple majority vote. Be wary of this Parliament. ‘Wary’ is not the right word, but Parliament can react and it can rebel.
Parliament therefore needs to be given a bit of money or, rather, a bit of extra money. I am going to point out a heading that I would like to see receive a bit of extra money: citizenship, youth, education and culture. Put a bit of extra money into that!
Why? Because, as a French citizen, what took place in my country on 29 May has left a deep impression on me. As far as I am concerned, 29 May is an historic date. It is not just any old date, and the debates in which I have participated have at times been harsh: it is all very well talking about the market and the euro, but you should put a few more resources into that heading. Do it for the sake of European awareness, because history is reversible. Any treaty that has been concluded can be broken.
(Applause)

