mr president the new post of president of council with which everyone seems to be fairly obsessed is an appointment for two and a half years only and has very few defined powers
so somebody should tell tony blair not to get too upset if he does not get it after lisbon the true holy roman emperor of the twenty-first century the charlemagne of our times whose writ extends farther than that emperor's ever did is of course the president of the commission our very own senhor barroso
and i say this despite senhor barroso's comments on partnership
however it is rather different for the new high representative
there is a big budget to open new diplomatic missions and i must point out that the existence of the post of eu high representative threatens the permanent seats on the un security council held by the united kingdom and france too monsieur daul
however the big problem facing the nation states of europe is not too few diplomatic missions but too many unemployed
members here have celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall and rightly so
but now we have a new berlin wall not on the frontiers of nations but within nations
this wall is between the professional politicians of the political establishment and the people
it is a bit too late to be asking for transparency now mr verhofstadt
there are those of us here who will continue to speak for the people and to speak out against these institutions which as the efd group has said before on several occasions and will do so again are short of democratic legitimacy
