The President of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic, in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt, slammed his foot right into it when he angered many MEPs and ordinary citizens with his negative remarks about the European Parliament.

In a statement the Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) showed their astonishment about negative remarks on the role and the composition of the European Parliament. Mr Gasparovic echoed similar remarks as those expressed by some European politicians in the past few days.

The president of JEF Europe, Jan Seifert, declared: "Rather than a money-gorging mammoth, the European Parliament makes a positive and vital contribution to policy-making and is a sign of the democratic evolution of the EU.

"To ask national MPs to look after the European Parliament disregards this reality and sounds pre-historic."

Mr Seifert described the Slovak President's remarks as "a slap in the faces not only of MEPs from the Slovak Republic but parliamentarians from all member states serving the European citizens.

"Democratic institutions cannot be a matter of savings. If we start to pinch and scrape when it comes to the representation of the citizens, we can start packing up all other democratic mechanisms as well."

JEF called on Gasparovic "to commit his own government to support any move towards a more efficient and democratic European Parliament with only one location.

"The European Parliament represents the emerging European demos and it is vital that its power is strengthened at the same time as the concept of European citizenship takes shape."

"The model proposed by the Slovak president goes against the idea of Europe expressed by Monnet, Churchill or Spinelli and makes us wonder: who is actually the mammoth?"

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