Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-036"
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"en.20071212.2.3-036"2
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".
Mr President, I too should like to join in congratulating the Portuguese Presidency. The signing of the Lisbon Treaty and the EU-Africa summit will take their place as landmarks in European history. However, we cannot allow these tremendous successes to be overshadowed by coming events, and on that subject I must mention two concerns.
The first is about ratification of the forthcoming treaty. The fact of abandoning the draft Constitution and replacing it by an ordinary treaty means there is now no impediment in any of the Member States – except Ireland – to ratification by a vote in parliament. That is a key feature of the political agreement concluded at the June and October European Councils. If, since then, any government has had a change of heart, the least it should do, in the interests of fairness to its partners, is to inform them before signature of the treaty and not afterwards. Mr President of the Council, I am confident the Portuguese Presidency will ensure that basic fairness prevails here.
My second concern – and it has already been mentioned by a number of my colleagues – is the situation in the western Balkans. For eight years now we have known that Kosovan independence must come sooner or later. Yet today, despite the considerable efforts invested by Javier Solana and the Commission, we are no less disconcerted by the situation than we were eight years ago.
We have said repeatedly that the western Balkan region is destined to become part of the Union, and we claim to be embarking on a common foreign policy. Yet successive Presidencies of the Union have done no more than pass the hot potato to the next in line. Things have changed since 1991. Sixteen years and 300 000 deaths have intervened and it is time for the EU countries to show they have learned the lessons of that sad past. The future of the Balkans will not be decided in Washington or Moscow, or even in New York: it will be decided here in Europe, among the peoples who are directly affected and their European neighbours, friends and partners."@en1
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