Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-13-Speech-3-007"
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"en.20010613.1.3-007"2
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, almost half a year ago, I addressed Parliament for the first time on the subject of the Swedish Presidency’s goals. Since then we have had an in-depth and constructive discussion on future issues for Europe, the three “E’s” of Enlargement, Employment, Environment, openness and reforms, crisis management and conflict prevention, the future, democracy, development and human rights. Unfortunately, I must express my regret that Parliament has postponed the debate which we were to have had today on human rights, which was an important priority for the Swedish Presidency.
The EU is, in fact, the only global power able to push forward environmental issues and sustainable development globally. It is therefore also natural for climate issues and the Kyoto Protocol to be brought up at the Summit with the US president in Gothenburg, which we will be doing. At the same time, we know that if we are to be able to play a leading global role, we also have to put our own house in order.
This is also true of other international issues on which the EU is now developing its instruments and becoming increasingly coordinated in its action in order to be able to exert influence.
As such, the common European security and defence policy, ESDP, is one of our most important processes. Conflict prevention, civil crisis management and military crisis management are all brought together into a single unit. We are adding to the positive development of the military area by also expanding civil crisis management with police, in the judicial area and with civil administration. We have also developed work on preventing armed conflict. The Gothenburg Summit will receive a report on progress within the ESDP and a European programme for conflict prevention.
In this work, the UN is our most important partner. At a working lunch with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in May, we identified a number of priorities for cooperation in conflict prevention and crisis management in which our growing military and civil capacity will constitute a major contribution to the UN. We are strengthening our cooperation in the field through joint fact finding missions and cooperation between special representatives. The Balkans, the Middle East and Africa are particular priorities. Naturally, we are also developing cooperation with NATO, which we have been able to see especially in the current crises in Macedonia and Southern Serbia.
In Gothenburg, we will also be discussing important foreign policy issues, including the Middle East where the EU has been highly active. Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson has visited the region and High Representative Javier Solana has made a large number of consultation visits and is expected to present a road map for the EU’s continued involvement and work in the Middle East at the Gothenburg Summit.
We will be discussing the Western Balkans, where developments in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM, continue to cause concern. On the Presidency’s behalf and in cooperation with Mr Solana, we have been active in keeping the coalition government together, isolating extremists, keeping the reform process for improving the status and rights of minorities going and continuing rapprochement with the EU. However, as we all know, the situation remains critical.
In Southern Serbia, developments are more positive. This is also an example of the way we can deal with conflicts through close cooperation between the EU and NATO.
We are approaching the end of our Presidency, but we have a great deal left to do and hope to take decisive steps at the Gothenburg Summit – on enlargement, jobs and the environment and the EU’s global role. We intend to be proactive and know that, in all the issues which we discuss, we will need the active support of Parliament.
The issues surrounding the future of Europe will naturally also come up at the European Council in Gothenburg. First, I would like to say something about enlargement – Europe’s historic undertaking and most important issue for the future. The credibility of the entire European Union rests on the completion of our work programme which, six months ago, was seen to be highly ambitious, by some even unrealistic. EU Common Positions have been adopted on all nine chapters which made up the Swedish Presidency’s road map, including several difficult issues such as the free movement of people, acquisition of property and, especially, the environment. We have been able to complete the chapter on the free movement of people with two applicant countries and on movement of capital with seven applicant countries. The environmental chapter has been completed with no fewer than four applicant countries. We can therefore talk about real breakthroughs in the negotiations. The whole internal market area has fallen into place. The four freedoms, fundamental to the EU, can now be implemented with a couple of countries.
We have also laid a sound foundation regarding central issues such as nuclear safety, food safety and land transport and completed chapters which were actually to be dealt with in the autumn according to our road map. We will be holding open negotiations in all areas with some of the countries which started negotiating last year. As such, we can confirm the principle of differentiation. Each applicant country is assessed on its own merits and controls the pace of the negotiations.
We held ministerial meetings with all the applicant countries on Monday and Tuesday. They were all very pleased with the progress achieved during the negotiations. At the same time, we could see clear concern among them following the referendum in Ireland. Naturally, I and many others are disappointed with the referendum result there, but it is therefore even more important that the work on ratifying the Treaty of Nice progresses, as it is the very foundation for the enlargement negotiations. It is also that much more important that the membership negotiations with the applicant countries are taken forward without any let up in the pace. The uncertainty which the referendum may have caused and spread to the applicant countries must be dealt with by our showing even more clearly that enlargement will continue.
The progress we have seen during negotiations with the applicant countries would not have been possible if these countries had not implemented major reforms and put a great deal of work into meeting our requirements. It could make and of course is making pro-EU governments even more open to populist attack if there is a sense that enlargement is about to stall.
I believe that we must draw three conclusions following Nice. Firstly, the Gothenburg Summit must give a clear signal that enlargement will move forward. Secondly, we all have a responsibility to send a clear message that the Treaty of Nice will be implemented and ratification will continue in other countries. Thirdly, we must all become better at making our citizens feel more connected with the EU. On this matter, we can also use the debate on the future of Europe to open up a general debate on Europe, and we all have a responsibility in this respect.
We discussed the issues for the future here in Parliament most recently on 30 May. I would just like to add that the report for Gothenburg describes all the initiatives from Member States, applicant countries and institutions, especially Parliament’s resolution of 31 May. With regard to the continuing process, we can also state that many people are in favour of a convention in the preparatory stage. Many are also of the opinion that such a convention should be combined with other measures. This is also Sweden’s view, and we should like to be able to highlight this direction in Gothenburg. However, the exact make-up must be dealt with in Laeken.
In Gothenburg, we will also be addressing the Swedish Presidency’s third “E”: Environment. We will be taking some important steps to adapt EU policy to ecological development, sustainable in the long term, by establishing concrete targets, concrete measures and an effective monitoring process. In this respect, we will be building further on the Commission report which proposes, for example, measures against climate change and health risks and for responsible handling of natural resources and improved transport systems."@en1
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