Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-032"
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"en.19991214.3.2-032"2
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"Mr President, the Helsinki Summit of EU leaders has been quite accurately billed as the European Union's enlargement Summit, and there can be no doubt that this European Council meeting has lived up to this particular expectation.
The EU leaders reaffirmed the inclusive nature of the accession process which now comprises 13 candidate States within a single framework. In essence what this means is that the countries, including Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Malta, will now open negotiations on membership of the European Union in March of next year. These new countries join with the original six that are already engaged in extensive talks with the Union covering 38 different chapters of negotiations concerning the enlargement process.
All the countries seeking to accede to the EU regard the prospect of membership of the Union as an essential ingredient in achieving the transformation of their economic and political structures. The leaders of the 15 countries presently comprising membership of the EU believe that there will have to be substantial changes to the internal decision-making processes within the EU if the enlargement process is to take place in a structured and streamlined fashion.
EU leaders have agreed to set the end of the year 2002 as the deadline for the EU's internal preparations, notably the ratification of any institutional changes which are agreed at the future IGC.
We all know that the enlargement process cannot take place unless there is some reform in the decision-making procedures within the European Union itself. However, the deadline being set down for the next intergovernmental conference is very ambitious indeed.
I support working towards reaching an agreement by the end of next year, but equally we must not and should not hurry possible fundamental reforms to existing treaties without due consideration and evaluation. Certainly it would be extremely difficult and impracticable to secure the support of the European public to introduce unanimity for tax harmonisation changes or for decisions concerning foreign and security matters at European Council level. We must tread carefully on the matter of treaty reform for the simple reason that we have to guarantee that we can carry the support of the 340 million citizens in the EU for any such changes.
Turkey has also been designated as having candidate status for membership of the EU although it will have to meet the political criteria laid down for prospective accession, which of course will include proving that respect for human rights is an intrinsic part of Turkish life.
On the issue of Chechnya the European Union leaders were right to bring home to Russia the force of their anger at the brutality of Russian behaviour in the region. A negotiated settlement is still the only real long-term solution for the securing of a peace settlement in Chechnya. The European Union must continue to use every diplomatic avenue open to it to help halt the war in Chechnya."@en1
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