Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-13-Speech-2-200"
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"en.20011113.10.2-200"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I will add to what President Prodi has already said by informing you of a number of things. The Commission's essential political message for today is that the desire of Parliament and of the Council to achieve the first accessions before the 2004 European elections may well be ambitious, but it is realistic and feasible. Why is this so?
Next year we will be embarking on the most politically sensitive stage of the accession negotiations. We will lay down a general framework for the negotiation of the financial chapter which ensures that it can be dealt with in a common framework, and we will be doing this very early in 2002, so that the Spanish Presidency will have the chance to keep to the timetable.
We are confident that the enlargement negotiations can be successfully completely on the basis of the current
. In our proposal, we will strictly observe the expenditure limits of Agenda 2000. We will thus make no proposals going beyond them, nor will we make proposals binding the European Union beyond 2006, so that it is perfectly clear that the Commission's strategy involves no financial risks.
Finally, let me add that negotiations are currently concerned with issues, the resolution of which will have direct impact on the living conditions of citizens in the accession countries. The decisions made now will influence either positively or negatively the acceptance of the accessions in the candidate countries.
We must therefore make every effort to give the citizens in today's and tomorrow's Member States all the information about enlargement. No partner should be subjected to excessive demands in the accession process. It is therefore essential that negotiations be both flexible and result-oriented.
The Commission will, then, on the basis of next year's progress reports, submit recommendations on the readiness for accession of those countries that are adequately prepared. It will make every effort to ensure that negotiations with these countries can be concluded successfully.
Firstly, because the candidate countries continue to meet the political criteria, with the exception of Turkey with which we cannot, for this reason, begin negotiations this year. Among the political criteria there are areas which still require our attention: good governance in the broadest sense of the word, international criminality, the functioning of the constitutional state – but I must repeat that the criteria have been met.
The progress made in fulfilling the economic criteria means that ten of the candidate countries are functioning market economies and are also either now, or will be in the near future, in a position to cope with the competitive pressure in the internal market. These are all countries with which we have opened negotiations, with the exception of Bulgaria and Romania, where though, I must openly say, there has also been significant progress. Particularly in Romania's case, the Commission considers it important to note that, for the first time, there is real progress in terms of political, economic and social reform, something which will be shown clearly only in the next progress report.
As regards the adoption of the acquis, this is reflected, above all, in the progress made in the negotiations, of which you are all well aware. So far, we have achieved all that was envisaged in the framework of the negotiating timetable, and therefore the negotiating timetable fixed at Nice will continue to be the keynote of our actions.
What is actually new about this year's report is that we are now concentrating very intently on the last remaining, and very substantial, problem, namely how to ensure that the future Member countries, at the time of accession, will have the administrative capacity to meet all the obligations of a Member of the European Union. For the avoidance of doubt, let me say that as yet they do not. Not one of the candidate countries at present fully meets all three criteria. The Commission therefore proposes the realisation of a special action plan to improve the candidate countries' implementation capacity. We are therefore also making extensive additional resources available. We will inform Parliament and the Council of the outcome as early as the middle of next year.
I do not want there to be any misapprehensions here. If the progress reports focus heavily on the shortfalls that we still have today, this is simply because we cannot repeat every year what has already been done, but the nearer we come to the objective of the negotiations, all the more clearly do we see the problems that still remain. In order to have the full picture, though, we must see the remaining problems against the background of the enormous progress that has been made over the past few years. Only then do we get things in the right perspective.
We believe that it is possible to reduce the existing administrative and legal shortcomings in due time for the candidate countries to have adequate implementation capacity when they accede. To put it very plainly: the Commission will no doubt have to give final opinions next year, and by that point there must be no more deficits.
Let me say in addition, that the accession negotiations with Cyprus are well advanced. It is our strategic goal to take in a united Cyprus as a new member. This requires constructive and substantial progress towards a lasting peace solution. I therefore reiterate my appeal to all concerned to make use of the ‘window of opportunity’ to achieve this goal.
The pre-accession strategy for Turkey is showing the first positive results. The constitutional reform recently adopted by the Turkish Parliament is a step in the right direction, but further reforms are necessary, especially in regard to effective protection of human rights and the implementation of economic reforms. The Commission considers that it is now time to intensify the pre-accession strategy. A more detailed scrutiny of Turkish legislation and its approximation to the acquis will be in the forefront. We have, though, not yet progressed to the point where we can propose starting on Turkey's screening."@en1
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"It will also produce a revised pre-accession strategy for those countries which are unable or unwilling to conclude negotiations by the end of 2002. These countries must not be made to feel that they are being left behind. They therefore require special attention and special instruments, which we will be proposing in the 2002 Strategy Paper."1
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