Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-09-Speech-3-136"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-04-09"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Vote2
dcterms:Language	"de"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20030409.4.3-136"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-04-09-Speech-3-1372
lpv:speaker	lp:Angelika Niebler2
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation for relations with South Africa (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern e.V. (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member_of_the_bureau; EPP-ED (2002-03-08--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	". I welcome the accession, on 1 May 2004, of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the islands of Cyprus and Malta. This will put an end to the calamitous division of Europe. I rejoice to be able to be present at this historic moment. However much I may rejoice in the accessions, I continue to have doubts about the Czech Republic. Whilst I want the Czech Republic to join the EU, I cannot close my eyes to the fact that the Beneš decrees, which legitimised the expulsion of individual ethnic groups, continue to be in force there to this day. I cast my vote against the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union. I do not regard it as acceptable for the Czech Republic to continue, to this day, to fail to distance itself from the Beneš decrees in an appropriate manner and thus to acknowledge that the expulsions were an injustice. My vote is intended to be a signal. I especially want to draw attention to the so-called ‘Immunity Act’, which continues to give legitimacy to the gravest offences and crimes of the post-war period. Years ago, on the initiative of CSU/CDU MEPs, Parliament called on the Czech Republic to suspend the decrees and laws still in force, in so far as they related to the expulsion of specific ethnic groups from the former Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic did not comply; quite the contrary. In addition, in April 2002, the Czech Parliament even unanimously declared the effects of the Beneš decrees on law and property rights to be ‘unquestionable, inviolable and unchangeable’. I see that as clear evidence that the Czechs are not willing to make a gesture of political reconciliation. It is this background that makes it urgently necessary to complete this chapter of history. The European Union is a community of laws and values, and one of its elementary obligations is that of protecting minorities. This must be recognised by every country desirous of acceding to the European Union, and for the Czech Republic to ignore this fact is unacceptable."@en1

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