Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-188"
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"en.20051025.20.2-188"2
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"Mr President, this House is discussing many issues, but without paying sufficient attention to the big issue, which is the European Union itself. What is in the interests of the European Union and its citizens? Firstly, that the process of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession, which we wholeheartedly welcome, should actually be completed successfully. What I object to about it is the obsession with different accession dates. It is of course in our interest that Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia should become Member States of the European Union before the end of the life of this Parliament, that is to say before the 2009 European elections, but whether it is to happen half a year earlier or later strikes me as less important than the actual implementation of that which constitutes the
. Mr Horáček is perfectly right to point out that what counts here is not what is in black and white, but what happens in reality. Over the coming months, the Commission, Parliament and the Council will be obliged to join with our Romanian and Bulgarian friends in observing how things actually develop in those countries, and passing judgment after they have done so, and not on the basis of this or that sentiment or resentment.
The second important issue has to do with the Copenhagen criteria, which were devised expressly for the last round of enlargement and are supplementary to the
. We must not allow them to be softened up, for if they are, they will have a detrimental and dangerous effect on future enlargements.
My third and final point is that, although we should, of course, recognise the accession of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia as an important step, we should, once the deed is done, stop conferring candidate country status willy-nilly. Over the coming years, although we should, of course, hold out the prospect of eventual accession, no more countries should be recognised as candidates for it. South-Eastern Europe must have the prospect of membership, but the first thing we have to do for the moment is to consolidate the EU. Nobody, after all, stands to gain anything from joining a union at the same time as it is dissolving itself to the point of evaporation. What is needed, then, is the definite consolidation of this EU of ours, and Romania and Bulgaria will, without doubt, make their contribution to it. They are European countries, but they can make that contribution only on the basis of facts and of law."@en1
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