Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-08-Speech-4-021"
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"en.20050908.4.4-021"2
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"Mr President, I shall begin by thanking the Commissioner for his encouraging presentation, and I shall continue in Swedish.
Last year’s enlargement of the EU has a very great effect upon the Northern Dimension. The Baltic Sea region, which comprises all of eight Member States, now forms the very heart of the Northern Dimension. It is a region with great potential for economic development and urgent challenges in, for example, the area of environmental policy, which must become part of the agenda for the whole of the EU. The people there expect a policy that makes it possible to make full use of the region’s potential, a factor that must also be taken into account in the EU’s policy on Russia.
When the European Parliament set up what are known as its intergroups, the group that was to deal with the Baltic region as a whole was one of the most popular, which is a sign of just how much demand there is for such cooperation. That being said, there is a lack of shared awareness and, consequently, of solidarity and a common sense of identity in the region. We must now take steps to heal this wound following the division of Europe.
The Baltic must become a matter for the whole of the EU. A flourishing EU needs a flourishing Baltic region, and the region needs the EU in order to be able to solve a range of problems, environmental as well as social and economic.
It is also important for Russia to get involved in the cooperation taking place under the banner of the Northern Dimension. It would be of symbolic importance to support Saint Petersburg so that, in future, all the waste water from the city might be cleaned up, so benefiting everyone living in the Baltic region. The population of that region expects such obvious problems to be solved.
It is unfortunate that the Northern Dimension has often been seen as an issue internal to Finland. It is also regrettable that Baltic cooperation, which is important, has in a way fallen outside the Northern Dimension, in spite of the fact that Baltic cooperation is an essential part of that dimension.
It is important for the Commission to succeed now in properly strengthening the Baltic side of the Northern Dimension. It must be possible to do a better job of coordinating research in the region and directing it at issues of common concern. Important infrastructure projects can bind the region together. We also need an extensive exchange of students and labour. Energy supplies must become more diverse. My message to the Commissioner is this: incorporate the Baltic as an important part of the Northern Dimension. Draw up a bold strategy for the region, and be more daring."@en1
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