Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-01-Speech-2-012"
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"en.20030701.1.2-012"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, looking at the balance sheet of the Greek Presidency, the items on the plus side of the ledger well outnumber those on the negative side. Given Europe's difficulties in the last six months with the Iraq war and economic stagnation, that is a remarkable tribute to your government.
Your first priority, rightly, was to meet the timetable for enlargement of the European Union. The signing of the Accession Treaties beneath the Acropolis and seven successful referenda have amply met this goal. Our joy at Europe's reunification is nonetheless tinged with sadness that Greece was unable to exploit its privileged relationships to bring in a united Cyprus. Please do not cease your efforts. We also regret the tensions which surfaced between 'new' and 'old' Europe over Iraq, despite your best efforts and two common positions to your credit.
Bringing the Convention's draft Constitutional Treaty safely into port also deserves to be chalked up as a notable success of your presidency. The Liberal Democrats in this House agree with you. The draft text agreed by the Convention provides a good basis for the Constitution, and we will hold Member State governments to the commitments they have made.
We welcome the extra time given to the Convention to complete its work on Part III, though for the Council to describe the remaining discussions on majority voting and codecision as 'purely technical work' is a masterpiece of understatement worthy of the British Government's description of the whole process as just a 'tidying-up exercise'.
The vanity of victory teaches us far less than the humiliation of defeat and Europe's failure over Iraq seems to have had some beneficial consequences, notably in driving forward European cooperation in security and defence policy. The establishment of the rapid reaction force, the launching of operations in Bosnia, FYROM and the Congo are certainly pluses. However, the weaknesses in the quality and coordination of European defence spending are clearly negatives, which we hope will be remedied by the new Armaments Agency.
Our failure over Iraq also helped you adopt two remarkable documents at Thessaloniki: Mr Solana's EU security strategy and the Council's declaration on weapons of mass destruction. The security strategy provides a fitting European response to the US doctrine, resting as it does on the European principles of multilateralism and prevention rather than pre-emption. The statement on WMD makes clear to our American friends that we are taking the threat of these weapons seriously, and offers a framework for Europe's response to Iran and North Korea.
You made Justice and Home Affairs the centrepiece of your presidency programme. Much has been achieved, though justice and freedom still play second fiddle to security, to the European Union's discredit. Commitments to further progress on legal migration and the integration of third country nationals are a fitting riposte to those who sought to repeat in Thessaloniki the kind of headlines which shamed Seville. However, my group regrets that you did not provide for proper parliamentary scrutiny, at European or national level, of the recent EU-US extradition agreement.
On economic reform the Hellenic Presidency has made good progress, notably reforming the Stability Pact to target underlying deficits, concluding the energy liberalisation package and adopting the much-needed pensions directive.
All in all, this has been a profitable six months for the European Union, despite the huge costs of war and the difficult economic position. Let us hope that, as you hand the baton to your successors, they too will run hard to keep up the Olympian lead that you have established."@en1
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