Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-15-Speech-3-326"
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"en.20020515.12.3-326"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Mrs Pack, ladies and gentlemen, I not only must, but can and may again congratulate Mrs Pack on her report and also take this opportunity to indicate my group's assent to it. She has got to the heart of the matter with her wonted precision and customary acuity. I have known Albania for many years, having gone there the first time while the revolution was still going on. I love the country and have high regard for many of the people who live there, including many of its politicians, as do any of us who are concerned with Albania, but I neither can nor will accept that the leading political forces – two people at the top in particular, but also others quite unconnected with them – are incapable of putting their quarrels, animosities, and rivalries to one side and putting the country's interests first.
I therefore agree entirely with the opinion expressed by Mrs Pack in the report, that there must first be a fundamental willingness to do this. I am not so much concerned by details of the reforms that are certainly still needed in the justice system, in media policy, in security policy, and in the fight against corruption. There is much still to be done in these areas, but they will not be done unless the political forces agree on a minimum consensus. It is true that that is difficult, but we are all from countries which, particularly in the aftermath of crises – I am thinking, for example, of the post-World War II period – have managed to build bridges and work together despite civil war, or, indeed, because of it.
I was the rapporteur on the Agreement with Macedonia. Much of the criticism levelled at that suggests that we voted on it far too early on. I do not know; perhaps we were wrong to campaign for the Agreement in the way we did, or perhaps we were right. With Macedonia, though, there was a quite specific issue, that of the relationship between the ethnic groups. There was even the willingness to make changes in that area – too little, too late, as so often in life, especially in politics. But in the case before us now there is not just one issue – it is the fundamental issue. That is why I share Mrs Pack's view. Unless the principal political forces in this country demonstrate the willingness to join together and put the country's destiny first, I am against us opening negotiations on an Agreement."@en1
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