Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-345"
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"en.20060118.23.3-345"2
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".
Madam President, to start with the second part of the question, it is the case that the European Union is required to provide adequate resources, and it will indeed do so. The CFSP budget has recently been increased considerably for the current year. Since, however, the scope of our future activities is not yet certain – we cannot yet tell what sort of presence the European Union will have in Kosovo – it is currently not possible to say precisely what funds will be needed for this. It would also be possible to raise the gas budget rapidly during the budget year with the agreement of the European Parliament, in accordance with Article 39 of the Interinstitutional Agreement. If the duties assigned to the European Union make this necessary, it will happen.
With regard to the European neighbourhood policy, it has already, in its first year, made a valuable contribution to the EU’s committed involvement in its neighbourhood, and we also support the Commission's related proposals. The gradual, systematic and nevertheless individual introduction of EU standards and rules should and will be pursued. The neighbourhood policy's declared aim is and will continue to be to offer and enable a significant level of integration. This is achieved – as you mentioned – by means of European neighbourhood policy action plans, and both we and the Commission feel that those with Ukraine and Moldova have been a success. An initial review of the first year of the action plans for Ukraine and Moldova will be carried out in 2006, during the Austrian Presidency. As of next year, the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) will also provide us with a new financial instrument enabling even more targeted support.
We also feel it is important to negotiate and conclude action plans as soon as possible with all states under the European neighbourhood policy. This includes in particular the three Caucasus republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and this, too, is a task that will fall on the Austrian Presidency. Political consultations with these three countries were launched just last December. In this context, the Commission declared firmly that negotiations on action plans with these three countries in particular should be pushed forward rapidly. The Austrian Presidency very much supports this.
With regard to Ukraine, we are very supportive of its connection to the European Union within the framework of the ENP. Now that Ukraine has met the technical criteria for market economy status, we assume that that status will soon be formally granted. In that connection, we consider it to be particularly important for Ukraine to join the WTO in the near future, as this would smooth the path for the creation of a free trade area with the European Union. A feasibility study on this is currently being finalised by the European Commission. We think that implementation of this proposal constitutes another important step in relations with Ukraine, and we will work hard to make further progress in this direction."@en1
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