Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-10-Speech-3-053"

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"en.20040310.2.3-053"2
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"Mr President, there are now only fifty days remaining of the long journey that began with the scenes of joy on 9 November 1989 under the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In fifty days, Europe will become a united continent, and almost half a billion people will join together to work towards a better and fairer world and to defend European values and together solve common problems: pollution, cross-border crime and, in particular, trafficking in human beings, which everyone has mentioned. EU enlargement is a fantastic example of what we can achieve when we have a clear goal and a clear strategy in the EU. With EU membership as a tempting goal, and hard work on their part, the former communist dictatorships have now become fully functioning democracies and market economies. Potential membership has also contributed to the work of reform in Turkey and to the possibility of perhaps finally solving the Cyprus problem. Naturally, there remain a great many problems, which Elmar Brok also pointed out in his excellent report. The EU will change dramatically in the next few years, and the main task during the next term of office will be to make this enlarged Europe work. It is therefore extremely important that the Convention’s proposal is actually carried out so that the EU can take decisions and function democratically. The Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party is always particularly concerned about minority rights, which is why we are greatly worried by the unrest within the Roma group in Slovakia. The cuts in social benefits hit this group particularly hard, and we hope that the Commission can continue to monitor the Roma situation in both the old and the new Member States. Finally, I too regret that we are building walls between ourselves and the new Member States in the shape of various types of transitional rules. One country after another is now introducing more or less discriminatory regulations based on fears that seem completely unfounded and are eagerly encouraged by the press in certain countries. Instead of hindering freedom of movement, we should welcome the fact that it embraces more and more people."@en1
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