mr president i have bizarrely grown to respect the rapporteur of this report over the period of time and i wanted to talk about the petitions in general because they have been of great use to me
whilst people do not understand the institutions of europe and whilst people are slightly scared of them sometimes they need a way of registering a dispute
the way we have registered petitions in this place in the past has been slightly cack-handed but has given them that chance to air a problem on a slightly different stage when they might have exhausted many other opportunities
i have brought petitions to this place from people across my constituency the earls barton seven was one of my most famous cases
the point is that the petitions process is probably the only process that is properly worth protecting in this place
other rules and procedures and many of the other committees pale into insignificance when it comes to comparing them with the importance of the committee on petitions
