Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-173"
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"en.20051025.20.2-173"2
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"Mr President, as so many footballing metaphors have been laboured, perhaps I might be allowed to make a few comments on the rules of the game. This is not a second debate about whether or not Bulgaria’s or Romania’s accession should go ahead. That decision has already been taken and I am glad to see the observers here today. I would, though, like to make two observations, which are addressed to us ourselves and to the two countries in question.
Let me start with us ourselves: Mr Van Orden has called for tough action aimed at combating corruption and crime. In some of his press releases he has specifically referred to trafficking in people and drugs. He also, though, more or less openly stated that deferment of accession beyond the envisaged date of 2007 is absolutely out of the question. I would remind the House that, if we were to put the two together in the way in which he has, it would be to declare bankrupt the theory that accession to the EU provided an incentive for more domestic reforms. What incentive for reform is left, after all, when the pressure is taken off, if it is guaranteed that accession is going to go ahead anyway?
So let me make it perfectly clear that the date has not been decided in advance. That they will join is a given, but the date on which they will do so remains undecided; it is dependent on what is done by the countries in question during the time that remains, and by nobody else. There can be no input on the part of the European Union, nor can any kind of discount be given. I get the feeling that not every aspect of the
is equally important. I do believe that the EU public’s need for security may make the combating of crime and the securing of the external borders more important than the number of cars with insurance cover, although things might well look rather different from the motorist’s point of view. There are, though, or so I believe, different hierarchies of problems, and that is why every country will be judged separately. It used to be very comfortable to travel in convoy, with one country’s weaknesses being compensated for by another’s strengths, but those days are no more; from now on, every country will be judged separately."@en1
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