25-4-2007
Polen wil mandaat EP´er Geremek afpakken
- VVD tegen "wet van de wraak" tegen mede-oprichter "Solidariteit" -
Polen dreigt het mandaat van de liberale Poolse Europarlementariër
Geremek (ALDE) terug te trekken. Reden is dat hij niet een tweede
verklaring wilde tekenen waarin hij aangeeft vroeger niet samengewerkt
te hebben met de communisten op grond van een paar maanden geleden
aangenomen nieuwe wet, die nogmaals parlementariërs, maar nu ook
journalisten en universiteitsdocenten, verplicht zo´n verklaring te
tekenen.
De eurofractie van de VVD verzet zich hier krachtig tegen.
VVD-fractievoorzitter Jules Maaten: "Schandelijke manipulatie van
parlementaire onafhankelijkheid door Poolse regering. Het EP maar ook
de Raad mag dit niet over zijn kant laten gaan. Dit raakt aan de
wortels van het democratisch proces. Ik verwacht ook stappen van EU
regeringen waaronder Nederland."
De liberale Europarlementariërs roepen ook de Tweede Kamer op actie te
ondernemen.
Geremek is mede-oprichter van "Solidariteit" en oud-minister van
Buitenlandse Zaken in het post-communistische Polen.
Hieronder vindt u de verklaring van Geremek:
I refuse
The chairman of the National Elections Committee sent me an official
letter demanding that I submit a declaration of "lustration" or face
the threat to see my mandate as a Member of the European Parliament
taken back from me. I will not submit such a declaration. I would like
to add a few words, especially for my constituents, in order to
explain my position.
As I ran for the elections three years ago, I fulfilled all
requirements of the election law, including the submission of a
declaration that I never collaborated with the secret police. I have
been elected, the National Elections Committee validated the result,
and the European Parliament during its Strasbourg session proclaimed
that I am a Member. For the past three years no new element occurred
that could bear an influence on the exercise of my mandate: no one
proclaimed the invalidity of my "lustration" declaration, I did not
take on any position which could be incompatible with the mandate, no
court has pronounced that I broke the law. In my opinion, demanding
from me to submit again a "lustration" declaration under the threat to
see my mandate taken back is contradictory to the rule of law and a
disregard to the will of 121.805 voters. It is contradictory to the
constitutional principle of the respect for human dignity.
It has been said that the lustration law aims at having a moral
impact. I do not share this point of view. I believe that this law as
it is, violates the moral rules, threatens the freedom of speech, the
media freedom, and the autonomy of the universities. It creates a kind
of "ministry of truth", of a "police of memory" and it makes the
citizen defenceless when facing a smear campaign, weakening the legal
protection of his rights.
I was delaying this statement because I did want it to be only a
personal protest act. I express my full understanding to those who
share my opinion yet decided to submit their declarations. I do hope
that the action of the democratic forces - and among them there will
certainly be the Democratic Party - will lead to change bad laws and
to the protection of Poland's good name. My decision is a call for
restraint and responsibility from our authorities as well as the
expression of my hope for citizen's activity.
To this imperative demand that urges me to subordinate to a
humiliating procedure I have only one answer - I refuse.
Bronisl/aw Geremek
VVD