From today’s speech of Jerzy Buzek (EPP, PL), President of the European Parliament:
Today citizens’ ‘virtual participation’ is changing the world we live in.
Dear Friends,
Today citizens are much better connected. They are as well informed as politicians are, this brings quite a new challenge: how to ensure credibility in the decision making process? How to ensure trust for the activities of our politicians?
What can be the role of the European Parliament in this context?
Today a particular responsibility lies with the Parliament – it is not only a guarantor of the stability of the political scene, but also has the task of creating a courageous vision for Europe. Citizens expect that it will present such a vision and a new kind of European dream.
Reconnecting with citizens will help to give another, non-economic meaning to the definition of deepening and widening of Europe. Governance, free market, single currency – this is absolutely insufficient as a basis for a community. We need one more crucial factor – the most important one – Europe civic activity. As Jean Monnet said “we are not uniting states, we are uniting human beings”.
Sköne Oke 
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