Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-10-Speech-1-091"
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"en.20080310.17.1-091"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, as we heard earlier, the situation is untenable. Three years after the enlargement of the European Union there is inequality between the old and new Member States and the negotiations between the European Commission and the United States on eliminating this inequality have not made much progress.
There can therefore be no objections to bilateral negotiations between the countries concerned, in particular since they do not represent a breach of any part of Community legislation. On the contrary, the Czech Republic included EU requirements in its Memorandum so that the Memorandum was fully compatible with EU law. This is also reflected in the opinion of the Council Legal Service. Community competence in the matter of common visa policy has not been breached either because the Electronic Travel Authorisation System that is being set up is not a visa.
It is certainly true that the US is willing to negotiate on including countries in the visa waiver programme only on a bilateral basis since it is obliged to do so by its domestic legislation. Only countries can be admitted to the programme, not international organisations or communities. That is the reality of the situation.
No precedent for other countries has been created. In my opinion, the Czech Republic and other countries should and can continue bilateral negotiations with the United States. Of course they will always be prepared to be transparent in their actions, to share information and to discuss their next step with the European Commission and with the presidency.
I would like to thank the Commissioner for his realistic attitude, demonstrated in his presentation. I would just like to warn against any outside pressure at EU level on some individual Member States that might involve political risks and discredit the image of the European Union, especially now when ratification of the new Reform Treaty is taking place in the individual states."@en1
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