Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-09-Speech-3-018"
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"en.20021009.4.3-018"2
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"Mr President, President of the Commission, the winds of change seem to be blowing in this Chamber. Having lived through a few historic changes, I am a little disappointed by the cold wind blowing in this Chamber. Exactly thirteen years ago today, the first demonstration which led to the fall of the Berlin wall took place in Leipzig. You, Mr Poettering, with your usual skill, recalled Solidarity, with which we are all familiar. I admit that as far as the Pope is concerned, you can have him. I shall, nevertheless, mention two other groups of Polish heroes that you forgot: the Polish resistance that fought against Nazi barbarism and the Jewish resistance that also fought in the Warsaw ghetto against Nazi barbarism. If we are talking about Poland and the fight against totalitarianism, we should mention all the Poles who fought against all types of totalitarianism.
Let us come now to enlargement. I admit to being somewhat surprised, occasionally, by the condescending tone we use when speaking of the candidate countries. Clearly, they need to reform. Clearly, the change from a totalitarian culture to one of democracy and a market economy is difficult. But what I would have expected, wished, imagined, dreamt of, from the Commission at an historic moment, is for it to say that as enlargement is an exciting historical project, we, as Europeans, should try to project ourselves into history. What will the Europe we want be like in fifteen or twenty years with the Twenty-five? And what are these petty debates taking place among the Fifteen today with regard to enlargement, when we hear what took place at the last general affairs meeting, with regard to giving two more seats to the Czech Republic, for example, or two more seats to another State? When you think that we have still not managed to draw up a financial draft for agriculture, that we cannot draw up a financial draft for the Structural Funds … and why? Because the Fifteen today are afraid of history and are in fact creating a policy of selfishness. Let us call a spade a spade. Most of the governments steep themselves in history on Sundays, and on Monday they are afraid of what they dreamt the day before. That is why we are unable to progress.
Mr Verheugen, as you said, you are asking for greater flexibility from the candidate countries with regard to financial problems. I would like to say that I personally am asking for greater solidarity and passion for history from the Fifteen. It is only through solidarity and passion with regard to enlargement that we will find the solutions to the more difficult issues. In a word, I would have liked to have received an explanation today, not of the old debate – should we first reform and consolidate before enlargement – but of the sine qua non conditions for successful enlargement, reforms and the consolidation of Europe prior to enlargement. This does not mean building a new barrier, but quite simply, Mr Poettering, making enlargement possible. If Europe continues to operate as it does at the moment, with the right of veto of one country or another in certain situations, we are heading for disaster and we are going to miss our date with history. That is the lesson to be learned. That is what I would have liked to hear so that we would be forced to act more quickly and carry out the process of the Convention in greater depth, with regard to agricultural reforms, Structural Fund reforms, reforms of the legal establishment in Europe, in order to make this establishment more democratic. Lastly, this should have been clearly stated. I myself am saying it on behalf of our group: what we dream of is, in ten or fifteen, or I do not know how many years, achieving social and ecological harmonisation across Europe, from Portugal to Hungary, from Poland to Italy. Total social harmonisation. I know that will take time, but is that our aim? Is that our dream? Or is it something we do not want, because we want to retain the differentiation between nations? That is what I think is somewhat lacking in the speeches made by the Presidency and the Commission. But that does not matter, history can sometimes force us to be more enthusiastic. And you will see, you too, with your enthusiasm, will one day go down in the annals of history."@en1
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