Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-03-Speech-1-069"
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"en.20000703.6.1-069"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Council presidency has given itself a bit of a pat on the back by declaring that the Portuguese Presidency has done what it set out to do, no more and no less than that. That may be true, Prime Minister Guterres, for the routine tasks. The image people have of the Portuguese Presidency will not, however, be determined by whether or not routine tasks have been completed, but by two events: firstly, by the fact that as President-in-Office of the Council you have had a hand in imposing the sanctions on Austria, and secondly, by the complete lack of progress in the Intergovernmental Conference. Why does this matter? Posterity's opinion of us as a generation of European politicians will not be determined by the successes which you listed; it will be determined by whether we succeed in carrying out the historical duty of our time in the Union, which is enlargement towards the east, the reunification of Europe after a century of European civil wars.
To make this possible we need to reform ourselves in the Intergovernmental Conference, and no progress has been made here at all so far. This must be noted. There is no doubt that this is a difficult business. The candidate countries themselves are having to make their contribution; we must of course be ready for enlargement and we cannot make enlargement conditional on the success of the Intergovernmental Conference. After all, it would be disastrous if our lack of ability to reform became a yardstick by which enlargement was judged. That is why we need to put more effort into making progress here. The fact that, for example, the French President has made a proposal to draft a European constitution enshrining the division of responsibilities is a major step forward, because dividing up responsibilities would create the confidence necessary for more majority voting in the Council, which is one of the most important preconditions for its ability to act.
The example of Austria is harmful because you are painting a picture of a European Union which interferes in the internal affairs of a country. This is not the kind of European Union which the people of Europe want; neither is it what the candidate countries want. It is regrettable that this has happened under your presidency."@en1
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