Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-15-Speech-2-330"
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"en.20051115.28.2-330"2
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"Mr President, EU enlargement is a challenge that involves risks, but that is also worthy of our efforts. The EU has decided to undergo enlargement to include another two countries, Croatia and Turkey. Various objections have been voiced, mainly with regard to the latter, and it will be a long time before EU citizens, rather than the Commission or Parliament, come round to the idea of its accession to the EU.
The EU has taken special measures, which go by the name of pre-accession instruments, to support the transformations expected to take place in Croatia. The working group proposed that a separate instrument should be set up to promote human rights, but I regret to say that this proposal was rejected. It is a pity that this instrument was not put in place, because a democratic society and state can only be built upon a suitable foundation. It is frequently the case that this foundation is not a government or an elected parliament or president, but a nation of free and responsible citizens who love their homeland. A nation may well need to be given more assistance in forming subjective beliefs of this kind than in developing its economy or administration.
The second issue to which I should like to alert the Commission is Parliament’s role in formulating a pre-accession aid strategy and in monitoring the application of this strategy and the development of internal social, political and religious processes. With all due respect for the Commission’s capabilities, I should like to make it clear that it should not be solely in charge of the instruments and of the policy as a whole. At the very least, Parliament must be an equal partner with codecision rights, and it must play the role of an objective and reliable arbitrator wherever necessary. One could argue that it was enough for the Commission to follow the Council’s instructions, with Parliament playing only a small part, when the EU had only 15 Member States. Now that the EU has 25 Member States, however, and given that there will soon be 27 players on the European stage, further enlargements will be fruitless unless the elected representatives sitting in this Chamber are very much involved.
To sum up, I should like to make it quite clear that the Commission and the Council should and must take note of the suggestions, ideas, visions and criticisms voiced in this House, for the good of the citizens of the EU Member States. The final borders of the European Union have not yet been determined, and we must work together towards this goal."@en1
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