Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-06-Speech-3-309"
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"en.20020206.12.3-309"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, since it is impossible, in two minutes, to discuss the countless issues concerning cohesion, which have, furthermore, been dealt with very thoroughly in the report we are now considering by Mr Musotto, whom I should like to congratulate on the excellent work he has undertaken, I should just like to express a few ideas on the implications of enlargement for the European Union’s economic and social cohesion policy.
The first idea is that if we want to have a viable European Union which has good prospects for the future, we will inevitably have to improve economic and social cohesion policy. Eastern Europe must feel the same level of European solidarity experienced by countries such as Portugal, Spain, Greece and Ireland following their accession to the European Union. Improving cohesion policy is necessary, however, not only to counter the huge regional imbalances that will result from the entry of scores of least-favoured regions in the current candidate countries, but also to continue to deal with the backwardness that still exists in the current Europe of fifteen countries, particularly in the outermost regions. This is all the more important because eastwards enlargement will probably accentuate the lack of economic and social cohesion in the current Europe of Fifteen, in other words, regional asymmetries could increase within the current European Union as a result of the dynamics created by the enlargement process, particularly in the relationship between the outermost regions and the centre of Europe. In other words, countries such as Portugal could become further consigned to the edges of Europe and the current centre and could become even stronger because it will then be the centre of a Europe which is economically integrated from its western almost to its eastern borders.
By this I wish to state that following 2006, we will need a cohesion policy which does not only look eastwards, but which also considers the still existing cohesion deficit in the current Europe of Fifteen and the new problems it will face as a result of enlargement. The reading of the second cohesion report demonstrates that the Commission is aware of this problem. We feel sure that the third report will provide appropriate and fair solutions."@en1
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