Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-065"
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"en.20010704.2.3-065"2
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"Mr President, we in the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party are clearly working on a joint position which we will vote on at noon, in order to condemn violence and support dialogue, but also so that the short-term efforts, such as the appointment of a mediator and the support for the Traikovski plan, should be immediate measures. It is also important that the medium-term efforts and the Union’s responsibility in this area – the association agreement is clearly an important factor – make positive progress.
I would like to devote my speech to two additional aspects of what is happening in the FYROM and which clearly affect the European Union. The first is that there have rarely been such difficult tests of the European Union’s external image as the successive crises in the Balkans, and that is still the case. Although there has been a substantial improvement since the appointment of the High Representative, Mr Solana, due to his management and his cooperation with Commissioner Patten and the Council, it is clear that all our will and our effort must be aimed at making our action more effective and saving our political prestige, since, for the image of the Union – and this has been made clear today by President Verhofstadt and Mr Patten and Mr Michel – a lot is at stake.
Another important effect for the European Union – which has not been mentioned and is indirect, but very important – is its repercussions for the enlargement process. Although by chance, it happens that the countries directly neighbouring the FYROM – Bulgaria and Rumania – are the countries which have the greatest difficulty in achieving the sufficient economic development with a view to enlargement and the negotiation. I believe that this proximity has a negative effect on the conflict in many respects – not only economic – and a very direct effect on the process of direct investment in these countries. I believe that our intervention, or that of our countries, should take good account of this, because countries such as Bulgaria, for example, have made a very positive contribution to stability in the area."@en1
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