Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-23-Speech-3-023"
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"en.20021023.1.3-023"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, in 1957, next to the huge Soviet bloc, the Europe of the founding fathers was, in the words of Paul Valéry ‘the little peninsula at the end of Asia’. Less than 50 years later, the European Union has become the third greatest power in the world in terms of population, rivals the United States in terms of GDP and is the greatest trading power in the world. The European Union is the only example in history of a power that has grown through the voluntary accession of its neighbours. This extraordinary example set by Europe must be maintained when the Community is enlarged to encompass a further ten countries.
It is not enough, however, to grow in body; one must grow in mind as well – this European mind that the German philosopher Karl Jaspers characterised as ‘the meaning of History, Science and Freedom’. Let us add solidarity to this list. We must develop the European spirit and prevent this spirit from being discredited at the forthcoming Brussels Summit by ridiculous displays of haggling and national self-interest, by arguments about who should pay more and who should pay less. This does not mean that the financial offer to be made to the candidate countries should not be substantial and significant. Nor does this mean that the future funding of the Union should be of a redistributive nature. A Union in which so many inequalities remain must concern itself with this issue.
We must not, however, confuse the matter. President Chirac is mistaken. The CAP is an unfair, imbalanced and damaging policy from the ecological point of view. It cannot be compared with cohesion policy, which really is a fair policy and a policy that strengthens Europe’s internal unity. Comparing the two policies is a serious mistake.
Lastly, Mr President, we must consider the case of Turkey: the most basic sense of loyalty obliges the European Union to set a timetable for negotiations with Turkey. Linguistic, cultural and religious arguments cannot be used to keep Turkey out of the European Community, when this country has been hoping for so many years to achieve this and has made considerable efforts to do so. This is a question of the EU’s loyalty and honesty towards its partners."@en1
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