Hereunder we publish texts showing various positions on the Maastricht Treaty debate: an extract of Jacques Delors speech of 14 October 1992 in Strasbourg, a comparison between the European Parliament Resolution of the same day and the declaration of Birmingham, and a summary of the latest initiatives of the Federalist Intergroup.

THE TRIPLE DEFICIT

I am not surprised at the difficulties connected with ratification. First, there have always been political forces opposed to the construction of a united Europe:these forces are active and it is normal in our democracies that they express themselves. In the second place, one of the difficulties arises from the ambiguity of the treaty's institutional philosophy: on the one hand, it is federalist in inspiration and the adversaries of federalism are opposed to it, especially to the provisions for economic and monetary union; but on the other hand, it is intergovernmental, if one takes into consideration the part devoted to external policy. Finally - the third aspect of the difficulty - in terms of public opinion it is a shock. Why? Because Europe is being built in the face of public indifference. We must redirect our efforts, because nothing great can be realised without the support of the people, without their awareness that it is being done in their interest. Are we going too fast? Should not we ha

ve given ourselves two or three years to assimilate the extraordinary progress realised in the past eight years? The answer would have been "yes" were the world not changing so quickly. But this does create an additional distance vis-à-vis the people. And it is a triple deficit from this point of view. There is a deficit of explanation, which I have already spoken about. There is a deficit of behaviour: how is a simple citizen expected to understand that we are in the process of creating a large united family, when every time the Council of Ministers meets, he receives an image of a restricted area where national egos and vanities clash. Finally, there is a deficit of democracy: one must certainly take note of the progress which is already mapped out in the text, notably the growth of the powers of the European Parliament and of the Committee of regions which, if it is working properly, has a great future in front of it. The national Parliaments must also be involved in this work.

Jacques Delors