Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-374"
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"en.20060118.24.3-374"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to thank the rapporteur for this very good report on the European neighbourhood policy, which will give me the opportunity to come back to the priorities for the next several months on this important issue.
As we have reiterated on several occasions since its inception in 2003, the neighbourhood policy is an ambitious policy. It remains the number one issue – at least in my own portfolio – in EU external relations, because it is so important to promote prosperity, stability and security. The stakes for our neighbouring countries are very high. It is clearly in the interests of the European Union to have well-governed and democratic partners in our neighbourhood which can finally join in the positive dynamics of sustainable social and economic development. As you mentioned, it is also in our interests that conflicts in our vicinity are peacefully resolved and that issues like migration, border control, organised crime and terrorism are tackled in a more effective way through closer cooperation.
The year 2005 has been the first year of delivery for the ENP, with the beginning of the implementation of the first seven ENP action plans.
What do we want to do in the future? The Commission has been active on a broad front, including, for example, progress on market economy status; visa facilitation and energy issues for Ukraine; the border assistance mission on the Moldovan/Ukrainian border; creating new fora in which to discuss issues such as democracy, human rights and governance, for instance with our Mediterranean partners – I need only recall the Euromed Conference in Barcelona in November; the preparations to pursue our educational cooperation and in particular to extend twinning and technical assistance and information exchange programmes to TAIEX programmes to our partners; and our proposal for a new European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument – the ENPI – that will not be decoupled from the neighbourhood policy.
It must be said that for 2006 and 2007 it will be crucial for the further development of ENP to deliver, and there is a considerable onus on our partners regarding implementation, because we will continue to deliver on our own commitments, but how the partner countries react is very important. We will continue the implementation of the ENP action plans in close cooperation with our partners. At the end of 2006 we will issue a full progress report covering the implementation. We will also open certain programmes and agencies to ENP partners. For instance, we will start negotiations on agricultural and fishery products with our Mediterranean partners. We will work on visa facilitation issues with Ukraine and Moldova. For Ukraine the mandate is already there. We will also adopt the ENPI as soon as possible and hopefully provide it with adequate resources so that it can be fully operational from January 2007. We are convinced that the ENPI will give us a better, more flexible and more focused instrument with which we can support reforms and cross-border cooperation.
Both we and our partners are facing a major challenge to turn the commitments contained in the action plans into real concrete action. Implementation is always the most important test and will depend very much on the partner countries’ political will and on our capacity, but also their capacity, to implement the commitments taken in the action plans. Let me assure you that we will do everything in our power to do so.
Let me also briefly say that the gas dispute of 1 January has shown how important the energy question has become. Let me also say that we must urgently draw the consequences of this gas dispute and the energy question for our external policy. I intend to give the highest priority to developing an effective foreign energy policy which will aim at the most effective guarantee possible of the security of the EU energy supply. We are not starting from scratch, as many instruments already exist, but they need further exploitation and an energy dialogue with Russia that has already covered much ground and provided us with a good basis to address bilateral aspects is there, but we have to make it really profound and we have to go on. We recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine on energy and, in addition, we will provide expertise to Ukraine and Moldova. Therefore, there is a multidimensional aspect and we shall address that through institutions such as G8, the International Energy Agency, the OSCE and others. We have the Energy Charter Treaty, which Russia has not yet joined, but we also have the South-East Europe Energy Community Treaty as instruments on which we will build. That means the neighbourhood policy will certainly also have to tackle these questions in the right format. But, again, as I said today in another context, we will also need coherence from the Member States."@en1
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