Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-16-Speech-2-191"
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"en.20060516.35.2-191"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by assuring the Commission of how much I appreciate the presence of its President and, of course, of the responsible Commissioner, when such an important issue is being debated. The chairmen of the Groups are here, as are the Members of this House – there could be more of them, but today’s turnout is more or less acceptable. I cannot fail to observe, though, that there is nobody here to represent the Council of Ministers, any more than there was when the President of the Palestinian Authority was speaking, and I do not think it is acceptable that the Council should fail to be represented at such an important debate.
Over the past few months, this House – and I think, even though we must always be capable of criticising ourselves, we can take a bit of pride in this – has achieved a great deal, in the shape of the great compromise on the services directive, followed by the adoption of the Financial Perspective, to which we had managed to make significant improvements, but there is still more to be done, in that, where the REACH chemicals legislation is concerned, we must succeed in achieving a balance between economic and environmental considerations.
Today, we discussed with Commissioner Wallström – who spoke on behalf of the whole Commission and indeed of its President – the most important matter for concern, second only to the improvement of the European Union’s political and psychological environment, which is that we should not allow there to be any doubt about the fact that the majority in the European Parliament wants the constitutional treaty to become a reality, and it wants that because we need the constitution if the European Union is to have ground rules for decisions and common values to bind us together.
I hope that the Commission will take all that into consideration. Mr Barroso, I think it a good thing that you should have come to your decision today and then, immediately, justified it to the European Parliament. Tomorrow, you travel to Romania and Bulgaria. I hope that you have a good journey and that we can all share in a good European future.
I would encourage you, Mr President – and this has to do not only with the presidency, and it is not only they whom I am addressing, for this is also a matter for the General Secretariat of the Council – to use your influence on the Council to get them to actually be present for such important debates. You, Mr President, will have our support if you press this point home as clearly as possible to the Council, to its General Secretariat, and also to the presidency.
Moving on to the matter in hand, Bulgaria and Romania are on their way into the European Union. We look forward to their arrival, and I would just like to say something by way of appreciation. The impression has been given in many quarters that we – the existing European Union of 25 States – are the ones from whom they have to learn. What a colossal effort it must have involved for Romania and Bulgaria to undo the damage done by 45 years of mismanagement under Communist dictatorship in order to become democratic states under the rule of law; we should, for once, acknowledge what a long road these countries have had to travel.
Whilst we often – and often quite rightly – criticise the administration we have at every level in the European Union and in our own Member States, I would like say what a great benefit it is that the systems of administration we have in the European Union and in our Member States are founded upon law, so that it is possible, through the justice system, to contest any administrative measure or any action by an official. Nothing of the sort exists in the former Communist countries, and that is something they will have to develop. It is for that reason that it is so important that we should develop a legal system with the character of a state under the rule of law, and that will demand an enormous effort.
To the governments, the parliaments and the people – not least in Bulgaria and Romania – I have to say that they should not take our debate and our concerns about the lack of progress as an indication of our desire to teach them a lesson; on the contrary, we want to work together to make the accession of Romania and Bulgaria a success for us all – for the two countries themselves and for the European Union as a whole.
While we are not questioning the data, I do think that you, Mr Barroso and Mr Rehn, are well advised to say that we want to encourage both countries to address the remaining deficits by way of legislation and practical implementation in such a way – although they will be unable to get everything out of the way in the next few months – that we can hope, in the autumn, to be able to tell them, with a good conscience, that they will be welcome on 1 January 2007. That is why your decision – which we endorse – is an astute one and one that gives these two countries the encouragement to continue down the road on which they have set foot.
Today, everything fits together. It also has to be pointed out that the people of the present European Union have their worries about this too; they have not yet quite got used to our now being a community of twenty-five members. Ten countries joined us on 1 May 2004. We have to take a positive line on this with our citizens and say that having Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and of course Malta and Cyprus too, joining us was a massive success, for the rule of law, democracy and the social market economy have prevailed in these countries, and that helps to keep the whole European continent stable. That is what we need to tell our people, rather than always focusing only on the criticisms and challenges, and it is on this basis that we still have a lot of work to do in order to enhance approval of the European Union."@en1
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