Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-04-Speech-3-023"
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"en.20030604.2.3-023"2
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"Mr President, I wished to begin my speech by congratulating the Greek Presidency on the work it has done in very complicated and difficult circumstances.
I am glad that during this Presidency the Parliamentary Conference on the Stability and Association Pact in relation to the countries of South-Eastern Europe has been able to take place since it has allowed us to improve our neighbourly relations with the Balkan countries. Winston Churchill said that the Balkans had a very great and very full history which hardly fitted within its territory.
I believe that the European Union must manage and improve this relationship, and promote cross-border cooperation between the Balkan countries, as a method for preparing them for their future integration into the European Union.
This cross-border cooperation is based on knowledge, understanding and trust in one's neighbours and eventually on cooperation with them. To be able to work on the creation of a free trade area between states, firstly by means of unilateral agreements, progressing towards the disappearance of visas between states and eventually also the disappearance of visas with the European Union.
These countries must be integrated into the common foreign and security policy and they must be able to participate in programmes such as Socrates or Leonardo, in order to bring their integration into the European Union closer.
The Balkans is a complex region. At the Thessaloniki Summit the European Convention will also be presented. I believe the Convention has not dealt with the complexity of certain European Union Member States, which are not nation states but rather multinational states. We must establish mechanisms to allow these nations without a state, as in the case of Catalonia or the Basque country, to be represented in the bodies of the European Union.
In this regard, I believe that Mr Napoletano’s report has been very positive, but certain points, such as the right to bring cases before the High Court of Justice, do not appear in the draft Convention. I believe this is necessary so that the citizens in question can feel directly represented within this European Union, which must be a Europe of the citizens, but also a Europe of the peoples it contains."@en1
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