Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-14-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20060614.2.3-021"2
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"Mr President, the Council’s agenda features an important topic in the shape of the EU’s enlargement. I should like to say a few things about Romania and Bulgaria, which will be in the limelight today because of a resolution that Parliament will be adopting later on today. Last month, we debated here with Commissioner Rehn Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession further to the Commission’s progress report on the preparations of those two countries. This week, the Heads of State or Government will be addressing the same subject during their meeting.
Our group takes the view that the Commission has reached an even-handed verdict. The Commission shares our ambition to hold firm to 1 January 2007 as the accession date for both countries, provided they apply themselves to addressing the outstanding reforms. Like the Commission, we are convinced that this should be possible without any problems. Our group has always been consistent in its support of Romania and Bulgaria joining on the planned date of 1 January 2007. Those two countries must now concentrate on tying up loose ends in order to meet the accession date. I think that both countries have the political impetus to achieve this.
They both appear to have learnt their lesson, as was also the reaction in those countries to Commissioner Rehn's report. The reactions from Sofia and Bucharest to his report were very much to the point, to the effect that they had both made a note of what was required of them and they were going to go off and do just that. This attitude further strengthens my optimism that Romania and Bulgaria will take their homework seriously. Moreover, both countries have made considerable progress over the past year, which is encouraging. As such, it is not relevant to speculate about deferring their accession. Both candidate countries have demonstrated recently that they both have resolve in what they do, which gives my group the confidence that preparations will be completed in time.
As such, we have, at the moment, no fundamental objections to the Commission proposal not to arrive at a final verdict until next October when our final report is due. We would welcome it if the Council were to adopt the Commission’s attitude. In adopting this attitude, we all have our own role to play. The roles of Romania and Bulgaria are clear. In the past, we have asked the Commission to make an extra effort in order to help Romania and Bulgaria in their preparations, and to be clear about what they expect of the candidate countries. We would reiterate that request now.
The Council, too, has the responsibility to reach an even-handed verdict, but it also has the responsibility to ensure that the EU countries finish the ratification of the accession treaty on time. As was agreed last year with the European Commission, Parliament too will remain involved in monitoring the accession process right to the end, and I am convinced that this will result in a positive outcome."@en1
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