Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-10-Speech-3-164"
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"en.20040310.4.3-164"2
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"Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, today is the last time that this House will be able to discuss the process by which the ten new Member States are acceding to the European Union. There remain only 51 days before the historic date of 1 May 2004, on which the European Union will grow to become a Union of 25 Member States. This particular enlargement of the European Union will be accomplished on Workers’ Day, a date symbolising our need to face up to the challenge of giving the Union of 25 states economic and social cohesion.
It is no less significant that, the internal policy of the enlarged Europe being a work of peace, we are developing it into a real, outward-looking common European peace policy. I have made Cyprus my concern ever since I entered this House in 1984, a time when few thought its accession a realistic prospect. Then, a few years later, Parliament forcefully urged that a solution to the Cyprus problem should not be made a precondition for its accession.
I well remember such former Members of this House as Mrs Pauline Green, Mr Jan Willem Bertens, and Mr Yannos Kranindiotis; we believed that the accession process would be the catalyst that would bring about unification. There is now a substantial chance of the 30-year-long division of Cyprus being brought to an end even before 1 May. Not merely is it to be hoped, it is also to be expected, that the negotiating parties will indeed seize this opportunity, which may well be the last for a long time, and I hope and trust that Turkey will stand by its recent indications of willingness to work towards a solution. We must bring about a united Cyprus, in which all Cypriots can live together in peace, and which can play a full part as a Member State of the EU."@en1
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