Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-023"
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"en.20020703.2.3-023"2
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"Mr President, I will start by thanking the President-in-Office of the Council, Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen, for a very clear and open speech. The Danish Presidency will naturally be led with all the professionalism that Denmark can muster; but that is not the same as saying that the Danish Government’s very ambitious programme for rapid enlargement to the east will succeed, since this depends after all not just on how good the presidency is. There are very great and understandable conflicts of interest between the populations of the EU’s 15 Member States and only someone entirely insensitive to the interests of the ordinary EU citizen would think that consideration of this factor must be set aside in order to rush through enlargement to the east. In particular, it would be incredibly worrying if agricultural reform were to be postponed on the grounds that it was likely to become politically impossible after enlargement. Enlargement towards the east is an enormous task both economically and in organisational terms. It involves the EU’s having to send several hundreds of billions of kroner eastwards each year. The immigration into the EU of very cheap labour combined with the relocation to the East of our labour-intensive enterprises will bring about drastic social changes in the EU. Despite the desire of European big business for masses of cheap labour and new markets, it is unwise of the EU to ignore the social problems that will be caused for Europeans.
The great problems that we face may very well overturn the Danish Government’s ambitious plan. It is in the light of this that I wish to criticise the ‘now or never’ mentality. The world will not end if a decision on enlargement cannot be made in 2002 – it is only the President of the Commission, Mr Prodi, who is going round as if he believes that. That is why I am pleased to hear the President-in-Office reject this idea. There is a need for cooperation between European countries – first and foremost cooperation on free trade – but it is a distortion to talk about reuniting Europe. The truth is that the countries of Europe have never cooperated more closely than they do today. The project will not fall through just because a certain deadline is not achieved – on the contrary, it may be improved by not suppressing the problems and postponing dealing with them. That is why the presidency should have a Plan B that can be implemented if Plan A is unsuccessful. I will end by expressing the desire for the Danish Presidency, as is its custom, to contribute to the EU’s development by listening more to the European voters than we are used to doing."@en1
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