Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-12-Speech-3-063"
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"en.20000412.2.3-063"2
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"President, Commissioner, we are faced with a fundamental difficulty, in the exercise in which we are involved, in maintaining the balance between enlarging the EU and reforming the institutions to make that enlargement possible. British Conservatives cannot accept the report, based on the long list of ancillary items which are not on the agenda of the IGC.
We are concerned by the proposals for constitutionalisation of the Union, by the proposals to incorporate the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Treaty, by the progressive diminishing of the distinction between the first and second pillars, by the proposal that the Council should adopt broad guidelines of economic, employment and social convergence policies by qualified majority. These are just some examples of the complex and controversial issues which are raised.
We are overloading the wish list of the IGC. The great danger, if all these extra items were to be adopted on the agenda, is that the deadline of December 2000 would inevitably be missed. Where would that leave the candidate countries like Poland and Hungary, whose government leaders have already expressed concern over the timetable?
We believe the IGC should concentrate on the essential institutional reforms. It should ensure that it meets the deadline, to enable the first wave of enlargement to include Central and Eastern European countries by 2004, and to continue any further necessary reforms with the full inclusion of our new partners. If the EU delays enlargement too long, it may make it more difficult, or impossible, for some candidate countries to join within the envisaged timetable. The President-in-Office addressed some of these concerns in his speech.
Commissioner Barnier in his speech said that the intention is to succeed with the reforms, not necessarily to conclude them. Some people say that this is the last opportunity for reform. I do not think that is a very fair reflection on the extraordinary reforms that many of the candidate countries have made in the last 9 and 10 years since they were within the Warsaw Pact or formerly part of the Soviet Union. Our priority is enlargement. We should not confuse or reverse our priorities."@en1
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