Policy Focus

Jens-Peter Bonde says farewell to Parliament

Source: press release

Date: 09 May 2008

On 8 May, Jens-Peter Bonde officially withdrewfrom his MEP seat in the Parliament, to be replaced by HanneDahl.

His position as co-president of theindependence/democracy group will be taken by Irish MEP KathySinnott.

Giving a farewell speech, Bonde reflected uponhow the parliament has changed in the past 29 years.

“May I thank all of you for good battles onconstitutions and referendums and good cooperation in our jointfight for transparency,” he said

“When I started as rapporteur for theParliament's budget all group leaders were on the front line ofcheating…nowadays group leaders are on the front line of cleaningthe house even if we have had a set-back on members'assistants”

Bonde noted however that there was still workto be done.

“It took Santer 4 years to deliver theinternal telephone book which was secret until then. It took Prodi4 years to deliver the full agendas and minutes of commissionmeetings. It took Barroso one day to deliver a list of 3,094 secretworking groups in the Commission - and over 4 years to deliver thenames of the advisors,” he added.

“All European laws have to be decided by amajority in the Parliament and secret legislation by civil servantsand lobbyists must stop.

All meetings and documents have to be open andtransparent unless we decide on derogation,” he added.

Bonde also acknowledged the benefits ofcross-party agreements in bringing about greater transparency inthe EU institutions.

“Such victories were only possible because wecooperated across political lines. In the Convention I had thesignatures of 23 governments, every single MP and every MEP exceptone, for a very simple proposal to turn the procedure ontransparency,” he said.

“After 37 years of being critical of the EU, Ihave become more critical towards the structures and friendliertowards the persons in the system,” he added.

Finally, Bonde urged the present MEPs tocontinue to work towards achieving a more open EU.

“Please, safeguard that all European laws haveto pass through this parliament by a public vote. Thank you,colleagues, for 29 years in our joint assembly."

Fri 9th May 2008