http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speecharchive.php Recent Speeches from Diana Wallis MEP en-GB Diana Wallis MEP http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2008 Diana Wallis MEP 2008-10-11T10:38+01:00 United Kingdom http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000028/keynote_address_on_common_concern_for_the_arctic.html I must start with an apology on behalf of the President of our Parliament, the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. He very much wished to attend this event. 2008-09-09T00:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000027/eparliaments__the_eeu.html Thank you for inviting me to this 'e-conference' in Bled. This is my fourth visit to Slovenia and my first to Bled, with still one more to go before your Presidency ends. That's some going. 2008-06-15T15:30+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000024/die_rolle_des_einzelstaatlichen_richters_im_europischen_rechtsgefge.html Sehr geehrter Vorsitzender, sehr geehrter Minister, sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, 2008-05-05T12:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000025/the_role_of_the_national_judge_in_the_judicial_system_of_the_european_union.html President, Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, 2008-05-05T11:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000026/expectations_for_the_final_common_frame_of_reference.html Thank you for inviting me here to speak again on the subject of European Contract law and the CFR on behalf of the European Parliament. In a sense it is very helpful to be here at this time and to hear the current status of thought in both the other two institutions. It is helpful to me because we in the Parliament are currently in the course of drafting a question and resolution on the CFR for debate with the Commission. It was appropriate that the Commission should speak first today, as it will be up to the Commission to deliver some form of proposal in the coming months, and now we also have a positive and clear position from the Council. The agreed Council position may perhaps be summarised as follows: the CFR should be a tool for better law-making comprising a set of non-binding guidelines to be used by the lawmakers at Community level on a voluntary basis as a common source of inspiration or reference. 2008-04-29T10:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000023/a_reformed_eu_but_still_missing_iceland.html Speech by Diana Wallis MEP, Vice President of the European Parliament 2008-04-17T12:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000022/crossborder_governance_in_vulnerable_areas_has_the_eu_anything_to_offer_in_the_arctic.html Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen; I am delighted to be here in Rovaniemi once again. 2008-02-29T11:02+00:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000021/why_we_have_to_stand_up_to_the_threat_of_racists_and_fascists.html In 2004 the BNP were just 70,000 votes away from winning their first seat in the European Parliament: a seat in this region, our region. It was their best result in the UK. 2007-02-17T15:00+00:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000019/european_integration_british_experience_and_perspectives.html This last weekend saw an interesting and popular development in British-EU relations, as the arch Eurosceptic daily newspaper, the Express, gave over its entire front page to proclaim the likely benefits of a European Court of Justice judgement due later this month. This is a first; they normally spend most of their column inches bemoaning judgements from both Luxembourg and Strasbourg as an intrusion on our national way of life and our sovereignty. So what was it that was coming from Brussels and Luxembourg that they liked the look of, you may well ask? Well, quite simply, the right to buy cheap alcohol and tobacco over the internet from other EU countries which would not be subject to the higher rates of UK excise duty, but instead just to the lower rates in the country of origin. So the Daily Express is now converted to the benefits of the EU's internal market and we can all drink ourselves silly this Christmas on cheap foreign beer. Yes, we British are won over to the European integration that easily! Or are we? 2006-11-16T18:15+00:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000029/is_it_time_for_an_arctic_charter_perspectives_on_governance_in_the_arctic_region.html I attended my first meeting of this conference six years ago in Rovaniemi, Finland. At that conference one of the important presentations was the one by Professor Oran Young on Arctic governance. Even then he made it clear that all was not as it should be if we were properly listening and ready to protect this fragile area of the globe and to heed the warning signals it was giving off in relation to our world. His words and the description by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, from the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, of the subtle changes to the nature of her homeland remained with me for long afterwards. 2006-08-03T16:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000018/speech_delivered_at_the_europa_institut_university_of_zurich_switzerland_on_bilateral_treaties_switzerlandeu.html When preparing this speech for today, I looked back on the one I gave when you invited me in June 2002 to celebrate the coming into force of the first set of bilateral accords. Now, as then, you asked me to give a view from the EU. I underline that this is a view of an elected politician, a European Parliamentarian - it may not always be the same as the Commission view! 2005-04-28T00:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000015/constitution_for_europe_what_could_it_mean_for_the_eea.html Thank you for inviting me to your 10th birthday party. This is your celebration. Through your unique and structured relationship with the EU over the last 10 years you have enjoyed access to the benefits of the growing Internal Market on 'almost' equal terms with Member States. It has, I think we can say without qualification, been a positive experience all round, assisting the development of the home economies in the EEA/EFTA states and on the EU side broadening even further the spread and extent of the Internal Market, a market now the biggest in the world. As an aside it is interesting to note that a British newspaper carried an article just last week about the numbers of British people buying property in Reykjavik. At the same of course we are aware too of Icelandic businesses buying up sections of Britain's high streets. 2004-10-21T00:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000001/everything_but_the_institutions_iceland_in_a_post_enlargement_european_union.html It has perhaps become rather too common in the European Union, particularly over the last year, to talk of everything as being 'historic'. Yet whatever one's point of view, the enlargement of the European Union at one hit, from 15 to 25 countries, must be an historic event of some significance. It can be felt in the Parliament; there is a sense of expectation, of excitement, especially against the backdrop of the countries involved from Central and Eastern Europe, at last freed from the dead weight of communism. Our final parliamentary session of this mandate before the elections will be in May, when the accession members will join us as full members. It will be emotionally charged; one that I would not miss for anything. It will be historic! 2004-05-05T00:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000002/playing_in_the_european_premiership.html Well colleagues, we have a truly European morning at a Liberal Democrat conference; speeches from two liberal leaders of our European Parliament groups and a debate on our pre manifesto for next year's elections to the European Parliament. Which other British political party would dare to have a morning devoted to open debate and comment about Europe? Certainly not the Tories, and of course, Labour still too timid to grasp the issue - every time Cook, Hain or MacShane (that rhymes quite nicely) say anything remotely progressive or interesting they get pulled back into line. Contrast this with the introduction to our policy document written by Charles - nothing could be a clearer commitment to our positive stance on Europe. Positive but also ready to be a candid and critical friend when necessary. 2003-09-22T00:00+01:00 http://www.dianawallismep.org.uk/speeches/000003/the_northern_dimension.html I would like to share some thoughts with you as a Parliamentarian about the nature of the Northern Dimension on the eve of the historic enlargement of the European Union. 2003-04-29T00:00+01:00