Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-10-Speech-3-133"
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"en.20040310.4.3-133"2
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".
Mr President, I too am very tempted to say a great deal about Romania, but today, I shall confine myself to the country for which I have been responsible over the past few years, namely Slovakia. I realise that this report is not the most important one, and may be the least important of all the reports we have produced about that country over the past six or seven years. What is certain is that Slovakia will be joining the European Union on 1 May. I have monitored that country for years and there is no mistaking the progress it has made in many areas. Let this be a compliment to a small country, the last to gain its independence and whose political problems before the election of 1998 meant that it was also included late in the countries with which negotiations were taking place. Today, we are talking about the issues that have not yet been resolved and about what is yet to happen in the acceding countries before 1 May. In that respect, I share the Commission's view as far as Slovakia is concerned. It is up to the government in Bratislava to do what is necessary; if not that country will have a problem after 1 May, with all the implications that this entails. I could not agree more with what Commissioner Verheugen stated this morning: if a problem of that kind occurs, we, in the European Union, cannot resort to any compromises, but need to have the nerve to act firmly. However, I join him in hoping that the problems will have been resolved by 1 May.
A few general remarks should not be missing from this report. I would reiterate my concern about corruption and would encourage the government to attach high priority to continuing the fight against it. Slovakia is continuing to improve as regards its economic performance. Economic growth is respectable; unemployment is falling, but I doubt whether all Slovaks are reaping the benefits of that. Although the reforms in social security, particularly to get people on benefit back to work, are recent, they appear to impact negatively on certain groups in practice. This particularly applies to Roma in some parts of the country, particularly eastern Slovakia, where there are hardly any jobs for them. Needless to say, such a regulation will then be ineffective. This could have been one of the reasons behind the various unpleasant incidents that took place recently, such as the looting of shops. There is, in itself, no excuse for such actions; they are illegal, but I should nevertheless advise the Slovaks to study their social legislation again carefully. As Slovakia has promised to do more, and not less, for the Roma, I do not object to amendments which aim to underline this once again. I do, however, object to amendments which accept the link between the looting of shops and the problems surrounding social security. In my view, the former is unacceptable and something should be done about the latter."@en1
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