Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-04-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20021204.3.3-048"2
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"Mr President, the Copenhagen European Council which is being held next week will have one major, important task: to conclude accession negotiations with ten candidate countries.
It will be necessary to iron out a few last-minute financial difficulties, but we have great hopes and we particularly welcome the fact that France is willing to look at the latest proposals by the Danish Presidency in a favourable light. They certainly demand some additional expenditure, but what is at stake is worth the effort and we must not forget that the Brussels European Council of last October had taken away almost an equivalent amount of structural aid from the new members. Everything should therefore balance out in the end.
The second major item on the Copenhagen agenda will be Turkey’s candidacy. We share Mr Giscard d'Estaing’s view that, as things currently stand, Turkey’s accession would spell the end of the European Union. We have, in fact, said this several times before. The 1999 Helsinki European Council made a serious mistake, which has unfortunately not been made good, but has since been confirmed. This error on the part of the Union shows its lack of understanding of what it is and its ignorance of what it wants.
Mr President of the European Parliament, you yourself have suggested that Mr Giscard d'Estaing, by adopting this position, would be removed from his role. I do not believe this, because exactly how could the Convention draft proposals on the future of the Union, on its institutions, on its policies if it has not firstly answered the following questions. What brings us together? What is our model for the Union for the next fifty years? Where must our borders end? Mr Giscard d'Estaing is therefore doing exactly the right thing by raising these questions indirectly. In fact, in our opinion, Mr President, the Convention, under whose influence I do not know, has been too hasty in preparing technical proposals without first having answered fundamental political questions which influence them. It is in Europe’s own interests to put things right as soon as possible."@en1
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