Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-19-Speech-2-102"
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"en.20021119.2.2-102"2
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". – Mr President, the process of enlargement is one that we all broadly welcome. While making great demands of the candidate countries, it is a pity that the European Union has not already put its own house in order. In particular I am thinking of the need for reform of the common agricultural policy and the Commission's financial management. It still seems incapable of properly accounting for the massive public funds put at its disposal by our taxpayers.
I also hope that, once the candidates have overcome their first flush of unquestioning enthusiasm for the European Union, they will begin to adopt a more sceptical attitude to many aspects of the European Union project. After all, since most of them have rejected the ghastly communist experiment that so distorted and corrupted their countries for the past 50 years, I hope they would wish to oppose inappropriate intrusion on their national sovereignty and the tide of leftist political correctness that is too often generated by European Union institutions.
Speaking now as the rapporteur for Bulgaria, I especially welcome the parliamentary delegation from Bulgaria. I recognise the enormous progress that Bulgaria has made in economic, political and social reform in recent years. Its ambition to join the European Union by 2007 is realistic and we should say so. We must give it every assistance to achieve this ambition.
Bulgaria has made great strides in recent years. There is now a properly functioning market economy and progress has been made on privatisation. The proposals for reforming the civil service and for tackling corruption are also an essential basis for political and economic change. So much needs to be done in so many areas. There is a vast grey economy and there is high unemployment, features not entirely unknown in some of the countries that are already European Union Member States.
Macro-economic progress has yet to trickle down into tangible economic benefits for the population at large. There are still major areas of poverty. This applies not just to the Roma population, where more vigorous action is required, but to Bulgarians more generally. The most vulnerable element in any population are the children and I have drawn particular attention to the need for more resources, including Community funds, to be targeted in bringing about major improvements in child welfare and childcare.
I must mention the Kozlodvy nuclear power plant and in particular the closure dates for units 3 and 4. Strong opinions have been voiced on this issue and unfortunately it has become a symbolic argument, with people digging in on both sides. Safety considerations must always be paramount when dealing with nuclear power. But there seems to be no good reason on safety grounds why closure should not take place in 2008, rather than 2006, if this would make a significant difference to Bulgaria's economic situation.
The EU peer review, conducted under the auspices of the Council, should make this decision, taking account of the results of the IAEA mission in June and an objective analysis of the economic consequences of closure."@en1
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