The Irish send a clear message to remain at the heart of united Europe

The Irish referendum result was “a great day for Ireland and a great day for Europe”, said EP President Jerzy Buzek today as he opened the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels.

“The Irish people have sent a clear message that they wish to remain at the heart of our united Europe”, he added.

In Mr Buzek’s view, “The Irish guarantees went a long way to convince the Irish public that the Lisbon Treaty is a good treaty for Ireland”. He pointed to the passionate support of business, trade unions and other sectors of society that had helped pass the referendum.

Mr Buzek said he also firmly believed the ratification process “will be crowned with success in the two remaining Member States”. He added “I have received assurances from the Polish President that he will sign the Treaty as soon as possible now that the Irish referendum has passed”. He hoped that President Vaclav Klaus would do the same once the Czech Constitutional court had ruled on any outstanding concerns.

“The purpose of the Lisbon Treaty is to equip the European Union to meet the challenges of the 21st Century”, he went on. “We must continue to dispel the fears of our citizens about energy issues, rising unemployment, and immigration.”

The president nevertheless stressed that “we should not forget those who chose to say No. It is our custom to think about all Europeans and respect their views, including dissenting opinions”.

Tragedy in Messina

Turning to other matters, the president spoke first of the floods and mudslides that occurred in Messina at the weekend and said he had sent Parliament’s condolences to the families.

Anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder

Lastly, Mr Buzek recalled that today was the third anniversary of the death of the Russian journalist, and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, whose murderers have yet to be brought to justice. “Anna was not the only victim; our thoughts go to the families of the other human rights activists that have been assassinated over the last three years”, he said.

The European Parliament has maintained a close interest this case and named its press conference room after Anna Politkovskaya.

Agenda changes

The House adopted a number of changes to the agenda for the session.

MEPs voted against a proposal by the EPP group to remove from the agenda Thursday’s debate on freedom of information in Italy (268 in favour, 284 against and 18 abstentions). The debate thus stays on the agenda for tomorrow, Thursday. They then also voted against a proposal to remove the vote on a resolution on this subject (286 in favour, 293 against, 18 abstentions). This vote will take place at the Strasbourg plenary session later this month (October 19-22).

A Council statement on the situation in Guinea was included on today’s agenda, to take place after the Council and Commission statements on the results of the referendum in Ireland.

The vote on a resolution on passenger compensation in the event of airline bankruptcy was postponed to the plenary session of 19-22 October. The debate on this subject will still take place today.

The report by Edit Bauer (EPP, SK) on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities was removed from the agenda for procedural reasons.

For two urgently needed Budgets Committee reports on funding for the earthquake victims in Italy, the President proposed to ask whether urgent translations could be made to enable the votes to take place tomorrow. The two reports are:

. by Reimer Böge (EPP, DE) on the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund: Italy, the Abruzzo earthquake

. by Jutta Haug (S&D, DE) on draft amending budget 9/2009: Earthquake in Italy

The report by Reimer Böge (EPP, DE) on mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: Germany (telecommunications sector) will be put to the vote in Strasbourg later this month

Topics: business, Governance, Lisbon Treaty, plenary session, trade unions, treaty, Treaty of Lisbon

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