Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-18-Speech-3-056"
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"en.20021218.3.3-056"2
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"Last Friday, 13 December, I went to the cinema to see Roman Polanski's film, ‘The Pianist’, the story of a Jewish musician from Warsaw who survived the Second World War in a miraculous way. At the beginning of the film we see how his family reacts with relief to the news that the British and the French have announced that they will be coming to help the Poles following the invasion of Poland by the Germans. We all know that nothing came of that help until last Friday, the thirteenth. On that day the outcome at Copenhagen paid off an old debt. The success of Copenhagen is success for everyone – including for this Parliament, which has been so intensively involved in this process. We can be proud of this result. To paraphrase the words of the great social democrat Willy Brandt, something that belongs together is now really being given the opportunity to grow more closely together. What started with Brandt’s historic genuflection in that self-same Warsaw has now been completed in Copenhagen. The credit for this new historic moment goes mainly to those who brought about the momentous changes in 1989 and 1990 and who were astute enough to make the most of the opportunity to turn the new democracies into fully-fledged EU candidate countries. Many of those who were leaders at the time have now disappeared from the political stage, but the outcome of Copenhagen is also a tribute to them.
Of course, our own European Union also deserves to be congratulated, as it may well have taken a long time to formulate the starting points and preconditions for accession, but it has subsequently maintained the agreed scenario and adhered to the agreed timetable consistently and efficiently. In this context I would like to pay particular tribute to Mr Verheugen's efforts. The candidate countries are also deserving of praise. Their staying power has really been put to the test. As rapporteur for this Parliament for Slovakia, I myself have experienced the efforts made by the Slovaks to meet the EU’s conditions at close hand. They were far-reaching, and there was very little time. The emphasis in the reports from the end of last week about the results of the Copenhagen Summit was on the financial arrangements for the negotiations and the Turkey question. Both aspects are important, but they are not the only weighty matters. Other problems also play a role in the European Parliament's final assessment that we have to issue for each candidate country. It is enough in this case to remember our earlier concerns on matters like the battle against corruption, the lack of administrative capacity in the accession countries and the discrimination against the Roma."@en1
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