Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-05-Speech-2-242"
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"en.20050705.26.2-242"2
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"Mr President, I should like to congratulate the rapporteurs on their reports and for the great deal of work they put into preparing them.
The future reform of structural funding will bring about many changes to regions within the original 15 Member States. That causes concern in many regions, such as my own region in Northern Ireland which has received excellent support over many years. A great deal has been achieved as a result of that.
I believe that the greatest problem for the European Union – and perhaps it should reflect upon the two ‘no’ votes in France and the Netherlands – is that we try to make the one suit fit everyone, from one end of the Union to the other. It does not work that way; we cannot make that happen; that is one of the great misunderstandings. While we understand the needs and requirements of many in the ten new Member States, it is of little comfort to those who will lose out substantially.
Northern Ireland, where I come from, is a much better place than it was ten years ago. It is not perfect by any means, and I would not claim otherwise, but we have, to some degree, an imperfect peace, which we did not have at that time. However, in the last 30 years we have suffered the scourge of terrorism, when our towns, cities and villages were bombed to pieces. Many people lost their lives, but the will and resilience of the people saw us through those dark and terrible days. The rebuilding had to be paid for, however, so instead of gradual investment in infrastructure and the development of our road, rail and other connections to the rest of the United Kingdom and Europe, instead of upgrading our infrastructure, all the finance went into rebuilding the bombed-out areas.
That has left us with a serious legacy of decay and decline with out-of-date structures and over-capacity in our water and sewage works. We have not built a single kilometre of motorway in that time. The west and the north-west of my province are crying out for infrastructural developments that will provide links within the province and encourage industry to those areas. Our rail system has been improved in recent years but still requires further development in rolling stock. We have lost out. We will need further support.
Commissioner, you recently visited Northern Ireland and came to Belfast. It was a very short visit. I hope that we will be able to welcome you back in the near future, when you will be able to see and perhaps help us on our way through some of those difficulties."@en1
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