Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-23-Speech-3-012"
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"en.20021023.1.3-012"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, the signal we got from Luxembourg yesterday was a strong and positive one. The Council has accepted the Commission's recommendations that the negotiations with ten countries should be concluded. The Council did this because the Commission had been able to make a convincing case that our recommendations were not based on a political wish list. Our desire was not to take a politically desirable scenario and pronounce it realistic, but to declare what actually is realistic.
The Commission's statement that these ten countries will have completed their preparations by the scheduled date of accession is not a rough estimate, but rather a firm prognosis, founded on knowledge, experience and the actual stage that preparations have reached, and one that we will defend fair and square. I think it important to note that the Commission came to this decision unanimously and that all my fellow-Commissioners, who bear responsibility for the extent to which policies work, said unequivocally that there remain within their fields of responsibility no problems that cannot be rectified by the scheduled date of accession.
If one considers what has to be done in the remaining 12 to 15 or 18 months, as against what has already taken place over the past five years – for it is only then that the complete picture becomes apparent – it is very clear to see that we are not being over-optimistic when we say that the nature of the preparations will be such that we can tell the citizens back home that the enlargement is as well prepared as it possibly could be.
The Council also took on board the Commission's proposals relating to monitoring and safeguard clauses. This is a very important point. This is not about any failure to trust the new members. This is where we need a new instrument, because we find ourselves in a completely new situation. The internal market and the single currency have, in the meantime made rapid progress and are almost fully developed. We are dealing with countries that are undergoing a process of transformation. Never before have we been in a situation in which we wanted to integrate ten countries at once, with a large number of them still in a process of transformation. This can give rise to problems that nobody can foresee. The Commission therefore considers it right and proper to have a very broadly framed safeguard clause, permitting us to intervene wherever unforeseen or unforeseeable problems crop up.
There is still a difficult stretch of the road ahead of us – that much is absolutely clear. As again became clear yesterday, however, political momentum is strong enough to carry us onwards to Copenhagen and make Copenhagen, too, a success. Not one Member State couples the threat of a veto to the demands and desires that are still present in this process. It is important that we hold fast to the fact that, yesterday, all fifteen again committed themselves to the goal of completing the negotiations. I would therefore like, briefly, to set out two expectations for the Council in Brussels to consider. The very least that we need from the Heads of State and Government is an agreement permitting us, in the time between Brussels and Copenhagen, to get together with the candidate countries and properly sort out those financial and agricultural policy issues that are as yet unresolved. The Commission does not believe it to be possible to reach compromises as late as the Copenhagen stage, as we would then be putting the candidate countries in a position where they would have to ‘do or die’, and we have to take the democratic rights of our future Member States seriously. The enlargement process cannot be forced, but must be the outcome of mutual agreement and founded on mutual trust.
Discussion of the financial problems connected with enlargement no longer focuses, essentially, on the financial issues of 2004, 2005 and 2006; we are indeed already doing the groundwork for discussion of the next financial perspective for the post-2006 period. Whilst this must be understood, it must also be said that the enlargement process must not be allowed to be taken hostage for positions that should be discussed only in the context of the next Financial Perspective. I also think we can agree that we of course have to carry on down the path on which we set off in 1999 in Berlin, which involves the requirement that the European Budget be consolidated rather than simply allowed to burst. I am glad that France and Germany in particular are currently making special efforts, including bilateral contacts, at coming to an understanding on this fundamental issue. I do not believe that Germany and France have a responsibility in this area markedly different from the responsibility shared by others, but it is certainly true that it was always good for Europe when these two countries took a common line on a great, important, and forward-looking European project. I would be very glad indeed if it proved possible for them to give this common line its final shape by the time the Brussels Council begins.
I believe that everyone must take on their share of responsibility and do their share of the work involved in this. The Commission's work is, in essence, already done, but that does not mean that we can now sit idly twiddling our thumbs – I am not going to be out of a job for a long time yet. What matters now is that everyone should understand that the enlargement project is political in nature. Over the last few weeks, I have been in touch with a number of national parliaments and can say with all due caution that certain problems I have encountered there have something to do with a noticeable information deficit in those places. What President Prodi said on the subject of information is crucial. I draw for my concluding remarks on my experience of the Irish referendum; in Ireland, it became quite apparent that, if we are to be able to advance our European cause and gain public support for it, we have to really fight for this Europe of ours and for our European cause; we really have to be prepared to meet people halfway and tell them, in plain language, why it is right and necessary. It will not work if we think that it will take care of itself or that the media will do it all for us. Political leaders in all the European institutions, in the Member States' governments and parliaments, the economic, political and cultural elites in all our Member States – these must now take upon themselves the responsibility of engaging in dialogue with the public."@en1
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