Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-05-Speech-2-039"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000905.3.2-039"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union, as our debate has just demonstrated, is perfectly qualified to take on the role of a full, influential and respected actor on the international political stage. Our democratic values, our common will to foster peace and security in the world and our history guide us towards such a role. The Community’s economic clout, its primary role in promoting development, and its privileged links with numerous countries or groups of countries also allow us to take on such a role. Finally, the instability of a fast-changing world, sometimes at the Union’s very door, actively encourages us to take on such a role.
The French Presidency’s second objective is to push ahead with the European common security and defence policy by implementing the decisions taken in Helsinki and Feira. The Union now has the instruments which it needs in order to apply a common foreign policy. It had been missing one instrument which was vital to the credibility of its commitment, i.e. the capacity to mobilise sufficient military resources to allow it to decide and act autonomously within the context of the so-called Petersberg tasks. Our objective, which the crises in Bosnia and, more recently, in Kosovo have taught us, is to provide a global response to the manifold and extraordinarily complex dimensions of today’s crises: not just ethnic crises, but also sociological, administrative, judicial, security-related and military crises. All these dimensions apply. What is special about the European response, compared with other instruments, is that it can offer a global response to all these dimensions.
In other words, the French Presidency hopes to take part in an extremely ambitious project which will of necessity take several years to complete. It therefore intends to keep up the pace of work so that the Feira commitments can be kept by the time the European Council meets in Nice – a particularly heavy agenda. The three main issues are as follows: as regards countries’ abilities to meet the objectives, the commitment conference which we shall be holding on 20 November will give each Member State the chance to state how it intends to help achieve the overall objective defined in Helsinki; as regards the permanent political and military institutions, our presidency has to prepare for the transition to the final, operational stage which will allow the Union to manage a crisis in all its dimensions as quickly as possible. Finally, we need to implement the Feira decisions on relations with NATO and with third counties in connection with military crisis management and the continuing work to strengthen civil crisis management instruments.
The French Presidency’s third priority will be to develop strategic partnerships between the Union and its neighbours and the main regional blocs.
The priority within this priority is to strengthen relations with the Union’s neighbours, especially the Balkans where, as we all know, the situation is still giving cause for concern. As a sign of the importance which the Union attaches to developing relations with the Balkans region, which we wish to see enjoying peace and democracy, France has proposed that Croatia host a summit on 24 November with the countries of the former Yugoslavia which, although at varying stages, have made the most progress with their democratic development.
The idea is to support recent positive developments in several of these countries and to remind the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that the door will also be opened to it once it joins the movement or, to be more precise, when the conditions are right for it to join the movement.
Developing the strategic partnership with Russia and the Ukraine is another priority of the French Presidency, which is due to host the EU/Ukraine Summit in Paris in 10 days’ time and the EU/Russia Summit on 30 October. The framework for action by the French Presidency of the Union vis-à-vis Russia is defined by the conclusions adopted by the Feira European Council, which offered to support the efforts being made by President Putin and the new Russian Government to modernise and reform Russia. At the same time, the presidency will, of course, continue to monitor the issue of Chechnya closely. The Council reiterated in July that only a political solution would bring about a lasting settlement of this conflict.
Finally, despite the uncertainty hanging over the future of the peace process in the Middle East, which we have just debated, developing our Euro-Mediterranean relations is one of the French Presidency’s main concerns. We hope to take general stock of the Barcelona process and assess cooperation under the MEDA programme during the ministerial meeting in Marseilles on 16 November and, if circumstances allow, at the summit which may then be organised for the following day in order to define guidelines to give new impetus to Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.
The presidency also intends to complete work on the peace and stability charter. During this meeting, as far as the peace process is concerned, the European Union should play a major role in supporting the two sides and the agreements which they conclude. Finally, the presidency is keen to implement the Common Strategy on the Mediterranean adopted in Feira and ensure that the new MEDA regulation is adopted. As far as the association agreements are concerned, let me repeat that it hopes to sign the agreement with Egypt and achieve substantial progress in negotiations with Lebanon, Syria and Algeria.
Beyond its immediate environment, the French Presidency will ensure that it develops political dialogue with the main regional blocs. I am thinking here of Asia. In Asia, priority will be given to resuming political dialogue between Europe and Asia and to strengthening economic and financial cooperation within ASEAN. A summit will be held in Seoul on 20 and 21 October and we also hope to resume the dialogue between the EU and ASEAN.
History will record two important summits with key countries in the region during the French Presidency. The summit with Japan on 19 July decided to start revising the 1991 declaration and preparing an action plan for adoption at the summit in 2001. The other summit, with China, will be held in Beijing on 23 October.
That is why the French Presidency of the Council intends to continue the efforts made over recent years and help to promote the Union’s international profile. I should like to explain briefly the four main objectives which we have set ourselves. First, needless to say, to press ahead with the process of enlargement, the main task facing us in coming years; secondly, to promote the development of a European security and defence policy, which should help to put the European Union firmly on the international map. We also want to promote the development of strategic partnerships with our neighbours and with the main regional blocs. This should allow the European Union to help create a multipolar world, which is one of the fundamental long-term factors to the stability of international relations. Our fourth and final objective is to improve the efficiency of EU instruments on the basis of the debate held by the ministers of foreign affairs at the informal meeting in Evian on 2 and 3 September, i.e. last Saturday and Sunday, at the Commission’s proposal and in the presence of Mr Patten.
As regards Africa, the presidency will be organising an initial follow-up meeting to the Cairo Summit and working to develop relations with sub-regional organisations in accordance with the provisions of the Cotonou Convention. It will be organising the fourth ministerial meeting between the EU and SADC in Gaborone on 29 and 30 November and a ministerial meeting between the EU and the Community of West African States in Abuja on 16 October.
The trans-Atlantic dialogue will focus on three foreign policy issues: the Balkans, Russia and the peace process in the Middle East. This framework will also be turned to good account during the summits with the United States and Canada on 18 and 19 December, in order to bring our main partners up to date with recent developments in the European foreign, security and defence policy.
Dialogue with Latin America will be furthered during the course of regular meetings with the regional groups next week on the fringe of the general assembly of the United Nations. France has also suggested that its partners consider the future of relations with Cuba.
Finally, the French Presidency will ensure that Europe is able to do all it can, in a coherent and responsible manner, to help open a new round of negotiations, which we hope will be global and balanced negotiations, within the World Trade Organisation.
In the longer term – and this is the fourth priority of the French Presidency – the Presidency again opened a debate during the informal meeting in Evian, in the presence of Mr Patten, on improving the efficiency of Union instruments. The Union – as I have said – has numerous instruments at its disposal which allow it to influence developments in international relations. Thus, its diplomatic presence in the world, both that of the Fifteen and of the Commission, is unique both in terms of staff numbers and geographical coverage. Similarly, the Union now constitutes an active and coherent group in the United Nations, where its points of view are represented in every forum.
Finally, its financial resources, our financial resources, are considerable. However, we all know the weaknesses in the Union’s external action: lack of visibility, inadequate coordination on occasions, flexibility which leaves much to be desired, too little influence in international institutions, especially Bretton Woods. Efforts have already been made to rectify these shortcomings, mainly by adopting the first common strategies, but this does not alter the fact that the impact and credibility of European action fall well short of the resources implemented.
The ministers of foreign affairs of the Fifteen therefore opened a debate at the instigation of Hubert Védrine during the recent informal meeting at Evian, based on the excellent work presented by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission and by the Secretary-General of the Council to the High Representative for the CFSP, Javier Solana, who was also present in Evian. Several items were entered on the agenda. First, we need to improve coordination between the various actors in the European Union – in situ, in the third countries, through more decentralised management of Community programmes and through improved coordination between Community action and action by Member States.
At central level, this must be done by reaffirming the coordinating role of the General Affairs Council in order to improve the coherence of external action in all its aspects. I am thinking here about political dialogue, financial cooperation and commercial franchises. Then we need to turn the overall efforts of the Union to better account and make them more efficient. That presupposes establishing the measure of this global effort vis-à-vis the outside world and, hence, having synthetic tools which integrate all aspects of external aid.
We also need to enhance Community aid management by improving the planning and implementation of Community instruments, taking account of the finding made by the Commission and endorsed by the Member States, that there is an unacceptable divide between commitments and Community appropriations disbursed and the increasing criticism, legitimate criticism, by third countries of slow, unwieldy processes.
Finally, and this is my last point, Mr President, the partners, i.e. the Council and the Commission both agree that we need better monitoring of the implementation and efficiency of Community aid, especially by the General Affairs Council, which needs to play a more important role in steering the Union’s external action. I can tell you, in this respect, that the ministers will refer to this point at the Council session on 18 September in order to define a monitoring framework and modus operandi, together with the Commission and the Secretary-General or his representative.
The French Presidency’s first objective is to give new momentum to the accession negotiations. The prospect of enlargement is the basic question which we Europeans have to answer, the huge challenge which faces us over coming years. That is why the French Presidency is determined to ensure that the IGC is a success and conclude ‘a nice treaty in Nice’, in order to prevent any delays to enlargement and ensure that we can welcome the first candidate countries to a Union with more efficient institutions. I should like to make a brief aside here to tell you that our attitude today is one of slight concern. We feel that it is time to move from somewhat static declarations of position to real negotiation culminating in compromise; otherwise we shall have trouble both starting and concluding the negotiations.
Those, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, are the priorities of the French Presidency as regards external action. We intend to cooperate in this and many other areas with both the Commission, which will be the main driving force in this area, as it is in every other area, and with the European Parliament.
Again on the question of accession negotiations, allow me to say that we shall push as far ahead as possible with negotiations with the Luxembourg six, of course. These are the countries with which we expect to make progress in negotiations on the most difficult chapters of the Community
. And we shall do likewise with the Helsinki six, maintaining the pace of negotiation and, depending on the level of preparation of each country, opening up a whole series of new chapters, 42 in all, ranging from four to nine, depending on the country. All in all, our objective, in close consultation with the Commission and Commissioner Verheugen, is to arrive in Nice at an overall vision of the state of negotiations, thereby efficiently guiding the work of the following presidencies and preparing the way for the completion of negotiations. The various reports currently being examined in our committees and the debate on enlargement planned for October will give us further food for thought. Hence the main deadlines during our presidency will be as follows:
A ministerial negotiating session will be held with each of the 12 candidates either on 21 November, for some of the candidates, or on 5 December, preceded by two meetings at ambassadorial level in the autumn.
As far as the Fifteen are concerned, we shall be organising a politically-orientated debate at the General Affairs Council on 20 November on the basis of the overall report and the individual progress reports on each candidate country which the Commission is due to submit to the Council at the beginning of November. The purpose of this debate, in the run up to the Nice European Council, is to identify the main difficulties which need resolving, chapter by chapter, country by country and, on the basis of this, to discuss how the accession process should continue. Finally, we shall be convening the European Conference twice, once in Sochaux on 23 November for the ministers of European affairs of the Fifteen and ministers from the candidate countries, and once in Nice on 7 December for the Heads of State and Government, at the opening of the Biarritz Summit.
As you will see, we hope to give a strong new impetus to the enlargement process. The Union indicated in Helsinki that it would be ready to welcome the first new members on 1 January 2003, as soon as the procedure for ratifying what we hope will be the future Nice Treaty has been completed but, as the Heads of State and Government stressed at the Feira Summit, the countries in question must not only transpose the Community acquis, but more important still, they must be able to implement and really apply it. This is naturally a very complicated and, as we well know, a difficult task for the candidate countries, but the Community is already helping by supporting the efforts of each country. These efforts are vital in order to complete the enlargement process under way in a serious and controlled manner and thus enable the most advanced countries to accede as quickly as possible.
As far as Turkey is concerned, I would just like to say briefly that recognition of its candidate status in Helsinki marked an important step which my country, France, supported. The presidency will work in the Council to have the accession partnership for this country adopted and will continue to conduct a detailed analysis of the acquis. It will also ensure that the Union honours its financial aid commitments with a view to setting up a single framework covering all aid instruments to Turkey. It will work especially hard to have the regulation on the economic and social development of Turkey adopted.
It goes without saying, however, that accession negotiations will be quite out of the question until such time as Turkey complies with the Copenhagen criteria, especially the democratic criteria, although any progress in this direction will of course encourage us to adopt the measures which I have just mentioned. We are waiting with interest for the House to adopt Mr Morillon’s reports on these important issues."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples