Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-18-Speech-3-012"
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"en.20021218.3.3-012"2
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Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I am sure that you will understand me when I say that it is with a great deal of relief that I stand before you today. This is not only because a period of time lies ahead of me in which I will have rather less work to do, but, above all, because I am happy to be able to say that the joint efforts of the European institutions and 25 states in Europe have brought about the success we had hoped for. Such success was not self-evident. Even though I remember that it was as long ago as 1999 that we first indicated that it might be possible to conclude negotiations by the end of 2002, I still have to say that it is a minor miracle that we have managed to do so.
The many changes this enlargement will bring will not be merely internal. There will also be many outward changes, and we will gain additional responsibilities in our international role. I share the concern of those who say that we may not yet be adequately prepared to take on this important and great international role. Russia, the Ukraine, the states in the Caucasus, the Middle East – all of these are closing in on us. Our neighbourhood is becoming even more densely populated and is closer to our doorstep. President Prodi has talked about how we must shape policy in relation to it.
Ladies and gentlemen, our work is not yet complete, neither at home nor in the candidate countries. The coming year will see the preparations for their accessions continued with energy and vigour. The Commission will look very carefully to see that all obligations are discharged, and, as promised, will draw up a final balance sheet on the state of preparations six months before the planned date of accession.
I believe that we have succeeded in coming to reliable arrangements, alleviating hardship and limiting risks. Over the coming year, the Commission, together with the presidency, will present the draft accession treaty to Parliament. We will then need Parliament to vote in favour of each individual state and of the treaty as a whole. It is Parliament that will be the first to decide whether we can travel to the very end of the road that was taken in Copenhagen. Parliament alone has the privilege of coming to a decision on every single accession treaty. No national parliament can do that. One might say that it is you who will be setting the benchmark for what twenty-five national parliaments will have to do in 2003.
In 2004, the EU will have 25 countries as members. Two countries, that is to say Bulgaria and Romania, can be confident that they will receive even more intensive support in their endeavours to attain membership of the EU in 2007, that now being our common objective. Turkey has a definite chance of starting negotiations, the same chance that all the other candidate countries had, and of which they made determined use. I would like to emphatically underline Mr Fogh Rasmussen's words to the effect that there is a definite sequence, which cannot be changed under any circumstances. The political conditions must first be complied with fully and unequivocally, and only then can a decision be made about whether to begin negotiations.
The Commission will not shirk its responsibilities as regards the report and the recommendation. Let me make it abundantly clear that, as far as these reports are concerned, we have developed standards, procedures, and methods in the course of recent years, and it is with those same standards, procedures, and methods that we will work. What is most important is that the recommendation that then has to be given should be based on the report's conclusions. It will not happen the other way around. We will not have a political objective and already know what recommendation we will make, with the report then having to be framed accordingly. Instead, the report will be fair, objective and neutral. That is an opportunity for Turkey, and I also believe that Turkey is capable of meeting these requirements. It must now put all its energy into the work of completing reforms and putting them into actual practice. It is not enough for us to see a ban on torture on paper in the form of a law; what we want is the certainty that nobody will be tortured to death in any Turkish jail or in any Turkish police station.
Ladies and gentlemen, the need for broad public debate has often been a topic of discussion in this House. It is now all the more necessary if the success of the ratification process is to be assured. Let us go into this debate with a cool head and objective arguments, but also with an enthusiasm for the Europe that is now coming into being.
As you are all aware, though, miracles do not happen by themselves. They require strong political will, great determination and also great skill. So let me now reiterate very clearly that I have felt myself fortunate and privileged to have been able, during this concluding stage, to work together with the Danish Presidency, and with a head of government like Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who set about his task with truly admirable determination and singleness of purpose.
I would, though, also like to say that enlargement has not been the work of just a handful of people. On the contrary, what is most important to me is the way that it shows that the Community method is able to conclude, exactly, precisely, and within a timetable, even as complex and difficult a project as negotiations on the accession of ten countries to the European Union. It is simply not the case that the Community method does not work when great and weighty international issues are at stake.
I believe that everyone here in this House is aware of the important part played by the European Parliament in driving this process forward, for which I am profoundly grateful. I would also like to say that the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, placed himself at the head of a movement that made a deep impression on the candidate countries. I believe that the way in which Mr Cox represented the European Parliament in Central and Eastern Europe made a major contribution towards creating and building up trust in the European institutions.
We have now reached a point that I would like to describe with the words of one of the greatest Europeans of our time, one who is, by the way, also important for the success of this enlargement process. It was Pope John Paul II who once said: ‘What matters is that Europe should at last be able to breathe with both lungs’. That is the very point at which we have arrived.
It was in Copenhagen that we were able to reap what millions of people in Central and Eastern Europe had sown when they struggled to gain democracy and freedom for themselves. We never want to forget that the peoples of the Baltic countries never, ever, chose to join the Soviet Union. Neither did the peoples of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia ever choose communist regimes for themselves. On the contrary, they established a democracy and a human rights movement under the most adverse of circumstances. We must not fear that we are being joined by Europeans with no understanding of democracy or of human rights. On the contrary, we will see that the European spirit, founded as it is on democracy, justice and human rights, will gain strength from those who have fought for democracy and human rights."@en1
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