Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-091"
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"en.20000217.4.4-091"2
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"It is with great satisfaction that I welcome this report on the pre-accession strategy for Cyprus and Malta, whose accession is vital to the future of the European Union in the Mediterranean. The aim of this proposal for a regulation is to set up the first programme to implement the strategy for Cyprus and Malta, starting in the year 2000 and lasting for five years (2000-2004). The proposal therefore aims to facilitate harmonisation of their legislation with the
and the correct application of the
.
This new move follows on from the step taken at the Helsinki European Council last December, when it was decided that Malta had made sufficient progress to warrant opening bilateral conferences in February 2000, i.e. by the end of this month, in order to commence negotiations on the conditions of accession to the Union and the adjustments required.
As far as Cyprus is concerned, although the Council stated that a political settlement would facilitate the accession of Cyprus to the European Union. It also stated that its decision on accession would be made without the above being a precondition, which I welcome. I have, in fact, always thought that insisting on a settlement of the present situation, in which one-third of this republic’s territory is occupied by Turkey, before starting negotiations with Cyprus was quite unfair.
On a more general note, it is true that the socio-economic situation in these two countries is far better than in other candidate countries. However, they have received technical assistance and financial aid from the European Union in order to transpose the
. Until 1999, this technical assistance and financial aid was provided under the fourth financial protocols (B7-4011). Both countries also qualify for financial aid under the MEDA programme (B7-4012).
During the first and second readings of the 2000 budget, the European Parliament stressed that the new ‘pre-accession’ heading (B7-0), proposed by the Commission in the preliminary draft budget, should not be limited to the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe and should also be extended to Malta and Cyprus. However, because of the Council’s refusal to negotiate a review of the ceiling set for heading 7 (pre-accession) in the Financial Perspectives, the European Parliament agreed, by way of exception, and I stress that it was by way of exception, that this expenditure should be financed under heading 4 (external action) of the Financial Perspectives for the year 2000.
At the same time, the European Parliament created a new heading: ‘pre-accession strategy for Mediterranean countries’ (B7-04), under which two new articles were created for the pre-accession strategy for Malta and Cyprus pending the Commission’s presentation, following the Helsinki European Council, of the necessary legal bases and a review of the ceiling for heading 7 of the Financial Perspectives.
This proposal for a regulation is supposed to be one of these legal bases!"@en1
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