Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-09-Speech-3-247"
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"en.20030409.5.3-247"2
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"Madam President, I would firstly like to acknowledge the French General, as others have done, but also the rapporteur for this report, Mr Morillon, an exemplary citizen and Member of the European Parliament.
This Parliament has today established the foundations which will allow the Council of Ministers next week to go ahead with the fifth enlargement of our political project, which is surely the most historic enlargement, since it has allowed us to overcome the division between Europeans represented by the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, which was quite simply the ultimate indignity and which fortunately now belongs to ancient history. This also comes at a time characterised by the 11 September attacks and the Iraq crisis.
The enlarged European Union today has a greater population than the United States, it has a similar gross domestic product to the United States and greater commercial and industrial power. However, it is weaker in terms of the latest technology and control of the financial markets and, of course, in the military field where the differences are immense.
My belief, Madam President, is that we must accept the fact that these insufficiencies – whether we like it or not – are the result of our own incapacity and that at the moment there is no effective alternative in the field of security and defence to the Euro-Atlantic alliance.
Yesterday the President of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia visited this Parliament, and this visit coincided with the entry into force of a European Union mission to that Republic. These are small steps, Madam President, which demonstrate the European Union's desire to establish itself as a strong Europe and as a player on the international stage which is able to shine in the military, economic and cultural fields, amongst others.
In the field of security and defence, Mr Morillon’s report responds to this objective by trying to establish a series of procedures which improve the decision-making process, which promote compatibility between military weapons, which consolidate the formation of the Council of Defence Ministers and which provides this policy with the financial resources necessary to implement it.
I would like to stress, Madam President, that it is very odd that the people who have complained most about the insufficient role played by the European Union in relation to the Iraq crisis are the ones who are most reticent when it comes to consulting their public and asking them to provide this policy with sufficient financial resources.
Finally, Madam President, President Aznar has not put pressure on anybody and neither would the dignity of the Presidents of Mexico or Chile have tolerated any type of pressure. Madam President, I would refer those people who have made these statements to the words of the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs yesterday, when he said that relations between Spain and Mexico have never been better at any point in history."@en1
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