Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-27-Speech-3-145"
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"en.20041027.9.3-145"2
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".
Mr President, when I was asked what changes would occur within the European Union as a result of the accession of eight Central and Eastern European countries to the EU on 1 May of this year, my answer was that there would be one extremely important change, namely that we would have to pay greater attention to our neighbours Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and that our new Member States would ensure that we did so. I am glad that this afternoon has proven this prediction to be true, even if I do not agree with everything that has been said before this House, in particular by the Polish Members. I do, however, welcome the fact that the representatives from our new Member States have taken advantage of this opportunity to highlight their region’s specific problems.
I have taken the floor one last time in order to counter the impression that we are ‘neutral’ observers of events in Ukraine. This is not the case, and the fact that the country is important to us means that we are extremely active in it. Our activities relate precisely to the promotion of civil society for which Mrs Schroedter called, and indeed we have achieved a number of successes in this field. It is by no means the case that the picture we have to paint is an entirely negative one. It appeared to me that, on the whole, our views on this debate coincide fully with regard both to what we want and how we will achieve it.
The real issue at stake here is the connection between political reform in Ukraine and the prospect of it acceding to the EU. Would a clear prospect of membership in the EU help democratic forces in Ukraine to take the upper hand? My answer to this is a definite ‘yes’, I am absolutely sure that a genuinely convincing prospect of EU membership for Ukraine would help. That is precisely the reason why, together with the action plan, we have offered Ukraine a policy in which the action plan only acts as a start, with the policy being made up of various successive steps bringing us ever closer together. During talks with President Kuchma I have always deliberately left open the issue of where this policy will ultimately lead, and it has been Ukraine itself which has said that it believes that it will one day lead to the European Union. I do not believe that we should reject such an ambition on Ukraine’s part.
As a final comment, I do not entirely agree with some of the things that have been said in this House this afternoon, for example that we should have more sympathy for democratic deficiencies in Ukraine; after all, the country has a hard time of it, as it is a young democracy, which has been independent for only 12 years. If you will forgive my saying so, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have also only been independent for 12 years, and yet we demanded that these three countries meet our political and democratic standards in full. They were able to do so, even though their past was as difficult as that of Ukraine. I am in favour of us adopting a similarly demanding approach towards Ukraine, and of us telling the democratic forces in the country what we expect of them. I do not, however, believe that the comparison made in this House this afternoon between Ukraine and a small child is an appropriate one. A small child can be taken by the hand, or occasionally given a smack, if needs be. Neither of these actions can be taken in the case of Ukraine, and in both cases the metaphor is inappropriate. Ukraine is not a small child, it is a thoroughly self-confident, important and adult country, and I believe that we can very well demand of this country that it should also behave like an adult."@en1
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