Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-15-Speech-4-056"
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"en.20000615.2.4-056"2
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".
Mr President, having listened very carefully to all the speakers, I would like to add a few words despite the very full agenda. Thank you for the quality and frankness of your speeches.
Mr Poettering and Mr Barón Crespo, I hereby confirm the commitment I made to you yesterday on behalf of the Commission on the status of European political parties. The Commission will shoulder its responsibilities. It will take the initiative. And, with the support of your President, it is planning to use the next trialogue to identify the ideal approach, in agreement with the three institutions, but in the meantime we are getting the initiative ready.
I would like to say a word on Croatia to Mr Barón Crespo. You are right to highlight the strategic nature of the country, formerly part of Yugoslavia. Mr President, the Commission is currently preparing for negotiations which should open before the end of the year for an association and stabilisation agreement with Croatia. In July we will have already drawn up the directives for undertaking these negotiations. Similarly, we have already begun to negotiate an agreement with Macedonia and we are thinking about negotiating another with Albania.
Thirdly, I cannot accept the suggestion from Mr Wurtz that the Commission is somehow being swept away by some kind of liberal tide. Mr President, the Commission is doing its duty and shouldering its responsibilities. This is particularly true when it is faithful to the guidelines and decisions of a European Council. That is what we are doing after Lisbon. But we are also doing so, Mr President, by remaining faithful to the letter and the spirit of the Treaties, and especially to one article in the Treaty which I have good reason to remember, the article guaranteeing the specific nature of public service missions.
These are the two requirements we are working to, and which we have worked to in particular in drafting the directive on postal services you alluded to, where I think a good balance has been achieved.
It is more surprising that you criticised some commissioners for holding a dialogue with employers. It seems to me that we need to have such a dialogue with employers, and with trade unionists too, and non-governmental organisations, if we are to do our work properly. Mr Wurtz, you know very well that Brussels is not the only place, and I smile when I say this, where politicians of right or left meet employers.
Finally, I share the opinion expressed by Mr Cox and Mrs Berès on the deadlines that need to be respected in the great European debate. I am grateful to a number of major operators in the construction of Europe – Mr Fischer recently, and before him, Mr Delors and others – for opening up the debate. The worst things for the construction of Europe we are so committed to, ladies and gentlemen, are silence and secrecy, and in negotiating this reform with others, I have feared that silence. Mr Fischer and others have provided oxygen, a horizon. We need that oxygen, we need that horizon for the great European debate. But please, let us respect all the stages and work through them one by one. The first deadline to be met, as you said, Mr President, is the reform deadline so that we are in a good position to undertake enlargement and also so that other reforms can follow.
So let us keep to those deadlines and dedicate ourselves, in the few months that lie ahead, to success in the negotiations. I am not just saying complete them. I am talking about success. Success in Nice. And, as far as I am concerned, the quality of reform is more important than the timetable. Concluding successfully is more than simply concluding. With the Portuguese Presidency coming to an end and the French Presidency about to begin, we must now put all our energies into achieving real reform at Nice to make enlargement possible, as well as other reforms later, if need be."@en1
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