Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-177"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000503.11.3-177"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, the bilateral agreements between the European Union and Switzerland are analogous to the multilateral agreement arrangements that have come into effect within the framework of the European Economic Area. It is the opinion of the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party that the European Parliament for its own part should support their adoption. Switzerland’s position illustrates the curious nature of Europe’s present arrangements for integration, and the need to aim to change them, especially now that the EU is expanding throughout the whole of Europe. The merging Europe has organised itself into a series of concentric rings, at the core of which has been the founder members of the European Union. First there was the Council of Europe at Strasbourg, which divided in two when France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux Countries formed the European Coal and Steel Community. The attempt to form a political and defence community came to nothing, but the European Community was created. The Outer Seven, as opposed to the Six, formed the European Free Trade Association, EFTA.
The expansion of the Six into a Community of, in the first instance, eight, and then twelve, went relatively smoothly. Since these instances of enlargement, a debate has begun on differentiated integration. At the end of the 1980s, a plan was drafted in the European Commission whereby the then European Community would consolidate as a federation and the other countries of Europe would join the Single Market via the European Economic Area arrangements. The first Agreement on the European Economic Area was offered to the EFTA countries. It was then that concentric circles were being spoken of for the first time. The EEA Agreement was established, although for Austria, Sweden and Finland it turned out to be a short-lived arrangement. EEA membership was rejected in a Swiss referendum. So the only countries remaining in the EEA were Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Bilateral agreements began to be drawn up for Switzerland.
Negotiations are now under way regarding the future accession of twelve countries to the European Union. It is strange that neither Switzerland nor any of the EEA countries are among them, although they would be the best suited of all to join. There is a simple reason for this, however. They do not want to join the present Union, nor that of the foreseeable future. Now that the Union is growing fast, it is reasonable that it should be subject to internal differentiation. Just as Jacques Delors, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt, among others, recently proposed, the core countries of Europe should go further along the road towards integration than the others, while the rest of the Union could develop as a confederation of independent states and differentiate. In this way, we could ease and speed up accession for the countries of Eastern Europe and this would also make membership possible for Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and even Switzerland."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples