Buzek calls for positivity despite EU 'weaknesses'

Outgoing parliament president Jerzy Buzek has spoken of the importance of upholding the "European dream".

The Polish MEP acknowledged that there are "a lot of weaknesses in the EU", but insisted that a positive attitude must be maintained.

Buzek, whose term comes to an end on 17 January, was speaking on the achievements and conclusions of his two-and-a-half years as president in the European parliament.

"My most important task was to ensure the power efficiency of the European parliament," he told reporters, adding that "everything possible on this issue was done".

"The European parliament is now a powerful body within the EU," with "95 per cent of legislation being decided through co-decision."

Buzek said that "politically and symbolically the parliament is a very important place" and at "the heart of European integration".

Responding to suggestions that the council has marginalised MEPs from big decisions made within the EU, Buzek said, "I don't like it. We need to use the community method for everything."

However, he added that, while the Lisbon treaty had afforded the European parliament more influence, it had also created the European council, a "powerful" organisation which now has its own president.

He also said it should not be surprising that decisions regarding the eurozone were "fast-tracked" without parliamentary consultation as it is "member states' responsibility to pay for bailouts".

And Buzek called for the EU to export its "European model" to the rest of the world, saying that it is wanted by countries such as Tunisia, Libya and Turkey.

Stressing the importance of the parliament's role in promoting the EU internationally, he said that the European external action service would have been "quite different" without MEPs' influence.

"We need to be strong outside the EU," he said. "We are an economic giant, but a political dwarf."