Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-19-Speech-2-120"
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"en.20021119.2.2-120"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, although the start of the peaceful reunification of Europe was symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall, we now know from yesterday’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting that it is on 1 May 2004 that the EU will enlarge towards the first ten candidate countries. We also know, however, that the transition, or rather the process of transforming the economies of the countries concerned, will take much longer. I shall simply point out that the official unemployment rate in a country such as Poland stands at 17% and that, in the year 2000, Poland’s per capita GDP was equivalent to just 39% of the Community average. Therefore, with regard to the transition process, I am hearing many of my fellow Members stress – and they are certainly right to do so – all the conditions that the candidate countries must still fulfil.
For my part, Mr President-in-Office, I would like to ask you a very direct and very specific question about what the Council will do in response to the requests made last Friday in Warsaw by the governments of the ten candidate countries. I admit that I am no expert in this area, but I believe that their demands are perfectly legitimate: a financial package to generate macro-economic stability, a net financial situation which must be improved not just for 2004, but for 2004 to 2006 as well and, lastly, the full use of the Berlin budgetary facility. In my view, these demands are quite legitimate.
Fearing, therefore, that I did indeed hear the Danish Prime Minister say this morning that he was not intending to renege on the positions adopted at the Brussels European Council, I would like to know exactly if, in response to the legitimate demands of the ten candidate country governments, you are going to make a better offer than the one made in Brussels, or if you are going to stick with what was decided at that European Council. I believe that, in addition to the general points that you mention, there are specific demands that must be taken on board and which I feel have been articulated – I repeat – quite legitimately by the governments of the candidate countries."@en1
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