Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-09-Speech-3-101"
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"en.20080409.20.3-101"2
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"−
First of all, I should like, in the name of the Council, to express my agreement with the statement made by Commissioner Rehn, that this is a crucial year for Croatia on its path to European Union membership. Once again I should like to thank the rapporteur, Hannes Swoboda, for the report he prepared, providing a very clear picture of the current situation, the level of development reached, and the future challenges.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Member States and the Members of the European Parliament for their very extensive support for the European prospects for the Western Balkans, as well as for your contributions to today's debate. Thank you.
We hope that Croatia will seize the opportunity and make fast progress. The fact is that its progress will primarily depend on Croatia itself, and on the pace and the quality of reforms they must complete.
I should like to point out, Mr Schmidt, that the Slovenian Presidency will conduct this agenda with the utmost responsibility. The Slovenian Presidency supports Croatia's progress primarily because its fastest possible progress towards the European Union membership is important for Croatia, but also because it is important for the European Union, and because it is important for the region as a whole.
However, the responsible conduct of this agenda is to be based on the negotiations framework, which has been agreed with Croatia, based on the revised accession partnership recently adopted by the EU Council, and on other legal acts of the European Union. And it is on this basis that we hope that Croatia will progress as quickly as possible, and the Slovenian Presidency will work towards this end.
As regards the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: Mr Wiersma, Mrs Berès and others have mentioned the danger of political instability in this country. The Slovenian Presidency has sincere hopes that this will not happen. Any political crisis, or possibly early parliamentary elections would slow down the necessary process of reforms for a couple of months.
We would like to see the unity of the citizens of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia preserved and strengthened, irrespective of their political and ethnic allegiances, their unity of views on their joint future in the European Union and the Euro–Atlantic structures. Also important is that, with the Albanian party DPA rejoining the government coalition, the internal political situation has been consolidated.
Now is the time, but the time is limited. We have time only until the next European Commission autumn report, their regular report on the progress that has been achieved. It is important that work completed during this period, which at the end of the year gained additional acceleration, is continued, especially as the political dialogue has been rekindled, and as concrete results have been achieved in the sphere of reforms. A National Council for EU Integration has been established, and an ambitious plan for the fulfilment of the Accession Partnership tasks was adopted. This course should be continued.
The Slovenian Presidency will continue to provide the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with decisive support on this path.
I would like to conclude with the following thought: the issue of Western Balkans stability and the region's faster integration into the European framework must remain one of the Union's top priorities. The Slovenian Presidency has set out this issue as one of its priority tasks. We hope this will continue to be so in the future as well. The fact is that any investment in the future of the Western Balkans in Europe is also an investment in the future of the European Union."@en1
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