Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-04-Speech-1-055"
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"en.20000904.5.1-055"2
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"Madam President, I am very grateful to the Commissioner for his statement. To some extent it addresses the matter and to some extent it fails to do so.
I think it is very important as a matter of public record that we should have a declaration in the clearest terms from the Commission in a body, that it is continuing to act as the essential European prime mover of enlargement. I applaud the view expressed by the Commissioner that we all share the task of selling this historic challenge but I deplore the fact that someone as pre-eminent as Commissioner Verheugen, at least according to a number of newspapers today, should say the Member States should not leave the Commission to do the dirty job alone.
This language is not appropriate to the sensitivities and subtleties required in this historic debate and it constitutes loose talk which opens up an appalling prospect, not least in the hearts and minds of those who support enlargement, and especially in candidate States and in their capital cities. That is why this matter is of exceptional political importance this week.
It is important to understand that a Commissioner, Commissioner Verheugen in this case, has a role to speak for Europe. Of course he is a German politician, but the German Government is empowered and in a position to speak for Germany. I believe it is entirely proper that Mr Poettering should demand that this issue be dealt with here this week and I would urge the Commission to give the necessary assurance, not only because I agree with the sentiments of Commissioner Patten, but because the world at large wishes to be reassured that there is no dysfunction at the heart of Europe on the question of enlargement."@en1
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