Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-04-Speech-3-122"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2000-10-04"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Vote (continuation)2
dcterms:Language	"fr"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20001004.7.3-122"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2000-10-04-Speech-3-1232
lpv:speaker	lp:Elizabeth Montfort2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 substitute; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Rassemblement pour la France (1999-07-20--2000-11-22)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Latvia Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-09-30--2002-01-14)3 member; UEN (1999-07-20--2001-01-30)3
lpv:translated text	". As far as some of us are concerned, Poland’s accession to the European Union will symbolise deliverance. In this Europe that General de Gaulle had once described as a ‘cathedral’, Poland has a unique but well-deserved place. The historic, cultural and even emotional links which my country has maintained for centuries with Poland make us French perhaps more sensitive than others to the nature of the welcome which should be reserved for a nation which, almost single-handedly, sums up all the glories and all the tragedies in the experience of this continent of ours. Regarded for far too long as the prime battleground for neighbouring aggressors, who always saw the annexation of Poland as the first stop on their expansionist itinerary, the unwilling arena for one of the most abhorrent tragedies in history, and subsequently left for decades to oppression by a totalitarian regime which, encouraged by our culpable silence, thought that it could finally quash Poland’s legendary spirit of resistance, Poland has never ceased to demonstrate forcefully the values of freedom, courage and independence, all those shared values that form the foundation stone on which our construction of a political Europe is supposed to stand. We therefore have a duty to embrace Poland as a Member as soon as possible and treat the country as it deserves, as one of our Members for all time. Spare us the doubtful audits and requirements for standardisation that are so inopportune. Blinkered application of these would exacerbate rather than improve the situation in this country. With 25% of the population employed in agriculture, Poland is not Luxembourg, and the debates on the candidate countries’ adoption of the Community acquis sometimes take on a surrealist tone, unless we accept the outrageous idea of a multi-speed Europe where, of all the disparities between peoples, only economic disparities actually counted. No, Poland deserves better than a conditional welcome. Its past is its best passport, and its dignity its best argument. Most of all, this country, which has ceaselessly fought against all hegemony, will bring us a new but, at the same time, experienced insight enabling us to parry the risks of any new imperialism, even that apparently inoffensive one – which may yet be a harbinger of the worst perils – of noble sentiments and a quiet conscience on the cheap. In welcoming Poland to our common home, the European Union will be doing justice to a newcomer, justice that has been denied to it for far too long."@en1

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