Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-18-Speech-4-171"

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"en.20031218.7.4-171"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, do we really hold ourselves in such low esteem? Is there anyone among us who does not believe that the round of enlargement covering the ten countries that are to join the EU next year is the main reason why, with regard to at least some of them, they are not sinking into totalitarianism or chaos, into a situation in which Georgia almost found itself? I believe that this is really what Europe today is about. Yes, we feel down, the Brussels summit did not turn out as we would have wished, but I believe that in historical terms enlargement has always been a success; it is proof that the EU has succeeded. The problem facing Georgia today is no different. Georgia used to be richer than most of the Soviet Union, whereas today it is the poorest region. If six years ago we had offered Georgia the chance to join, it would undoubtedly be in the same situation as the countries that are soon to join the EU. We must not follow Mr Meijer’s example. He is not only doing a disservice to us, but also to Mr Shevardnadze, a man who has his faults, but who also achieved some good things, and who is certainly no Ceaucescu or Milosevic. The issue, Mrs De Sarnez, is not the alternative that we can offer to the potential choice faced by the Georgians between Russia and the US; what we can offer is a choice between membership of the EU and chaos. This is what is at stake. It is not, Mr Volcic, a matter of nostalgia for a bipolar, US-Soviet world. The challenge for us, the EU, is to create an alternative for these countries of the Transcaucasus. So I hope that we have seen the last of the unspoken comments and an inability to think beyond the Black Sea. The Council has never even considered the matter, as it said again yesterday evening. Georgia must be placed immediately on the list of candidate countries, so as to afford it the opportunity, as we did with the Baltic States, and with the countries of Central Europe, to build a path to stability, development and democracy, by offering EU membership within eight to ten years."@en1

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