All this is essential, and I know that the European Parliament will be
vigilant on this issue, since I follow your debates with sufficient
attention to be aware of the positions adopted by the great majority in this
House. After all, a democracy presupposes a parliament. The more complete
that democracy is, the more complete the right of that parliament must be. A
parliament cannot be sectioned off in a kind of.reservation, at the mercy of
the prevailing wishes and ideas of administrations that will always opt for
convenience. And I could define convenience in a single damning sentence,
which does not express my own views: 'How nice it would be to have a
democracy without a parliament! And, better still, without elections!'
(Laughter)
. . . My second comment - still speaking personally - is that our future
negotiators would make a serious mistake if, through impatience or
weariness, they were to allow the enlargements to take place in conditions
which would undermine the cohesion and disciplines of the Union. I must
emphasise this point: I am totally in favour of enlargement to include the
whole of democratic Europe!
(Applause)
At the same time, however, I do not wish the situation to arise where,
when the last country joins, it joins something which no longer exists,
because it has been destroyed from within.
