Brussels, 26/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In an intervention at the Convention, MEP Alain Lamassoure (Member of the European Convention), proposed introducing the future Constitutional Treaty with a "solemn declaration that could help complete it or which figured in the preliminary speech". According to Mr Lammasoure, this could "consist of three commitments: peace, independence and solidarity". The UDF MP believes that the "past is against us" because it was the Europeans who, "invented the notion of genocide, erected slavery into a Trans-Atlantic economic system and who went off in brutal conquest of other continents". Mr Lammasoure adds that, "On our very continent, including the Union, worries persist and must be taken into account even though they remain unarticulated. If NATO were elected, even though the threat that caused it to be set up has disappeared, it's because, without ever having said it, many European countries see in the US alliance an insurance contract against the resurgence of any national hegemony in Europe". The mechanism outlined by Mr Lamassoure is as follows.
Peace. This first point indicates that the EU was born out of the desire for peace and that "its success has radically changed the nature of relations between Member States". It stresses that, "now, none of the Member States of the Union exercise illegitimate authority outside its borders" and that the EU and its Member States provide NATO with most contingents of "Blue Helmets" in the forefront of public development". The conclusion, "Today, we want to go further and give the Union the means to co-ordinate our only too dispersed national efforts. This means being better in confronting possible external threats and better defending our common interests. But we also want to be able to help the causes of peace, freedom, justice and sustainable development".
Independence. The text points out that Europe was a victim in the twentieth century of "two attempts to gain hegemony by totalitarian regimes" but has now found its freedom and independence and "seeks to unite to preserve it". Mr Lamassoure explains that our continent is indebted to, "the historical recognition of the USA and the Atlantic alliance. Our American partners have, more than ever, a major role to play in peace and stability in the world. We should celebrate the fact that this responsibility weighs on a country so close to us and so attached to the cause of freedom". The UDF MP concludes that "But a stable world has to be multi-polar. Each area in the world, every country must be able to express itself, defend its interests, and contribute to the common tasks of balanced and sustainable development. The European Union wants…to be able to bring its experience and its means to the framework of international legality. It intends to decide on its own how it is organised, its content, composition and political objectives and alliances".
Solidarity. This last point emphasises the responsibility that Europe, "the country of origin for the majority of colonising countries", owes to the outside world. The French MP asserts that "Its aid to third countries must be guided not by a spirit of domination or individual interests but by the search for a clear collective conscience and out of the deep interest for beneficiary countries. The sum and methods must be periodically subject to critical examination and adapted to the results. It intends to promote the organisation of genuine democracy of different peoples at a world level. It puts its knowledge with regard to continental organisation at the disposition of other regions in the world and seeks to develop their internal relations in all areas".