Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-09-Speech-3-102"
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"en.20080409.20.3-102"2
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"Madam President, first, let me thank Members for a very substantive debate, which, in my view, underlines the importance of the European perspective for the Western Balkans.
Ms Ek referred to the environmental aspects of overfishing in the Adriatic and I would like to respond to her and inform you all that Prime Minister Sanader told President Barroso and myself of his concern for a special area in the middle of the Adriatic, the ‘Jabuka Pomo Pit’, which is an important spawning ground. The Commission is strongly in favour of the sustainable management of fish stocks and Commissioner Borg has been very active in this matter. The Commission is ready to work on a proposal to establish a fisheries protection area in the Adriatic, as foreseen under the new Mediterranean Regulation. This will need further discussions with Slovenia, Italy and Croatia and, of course, the Commission.
Finally, Mr Lebech mentioned the Nordic model as a source of inspiration for the Western Balkans in terms of regional cooperation. I believe that the Nordic Council has already played such a role: it has been used as
model for the Regional Cooperation Council for South-Eastern Europe, based in Sarajevo, which is now the forum for regional political cooperation in the Western Balkans.
I find it encouraging that regional cooperation has substantially improved over the last couple of years and both Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have actively contributed to this success. We have clearly moved from a situation where, only a few years ago, regional cooperation was considered with significant suspicion that it was an attempt to recreate Yugoslavia. There is now a new understanding of its importance, both because of the concrete benefits on the ground – economic benefits, communications, transport, people-to-people contacts – and because regional cooperation moves the countries closer to the European Union. After all, cooperation across borders is what the European Union is all about.
I want to thank you once again for a very responsible and substantive debate and congratulate the rapporteurs on their important contributions to this debate.
A number of important issues were raised and I can only comment on some of them in this short response. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank the Slovenian Presidency for making the Western Balkans a key priority of its term of office. I found the Foreign Ministers’ informal meeting in Brdo, Slovenia, some weeks ago, to be very important, and it certainly gave a new stimulus and dynamism to our policy in the Western Balkans, like this debate. In my view, we are now on the right track.
The region has made steady progress over the past couple of years and once the major risks of instability, like the aftermath of the Kosovo status process or the fragility of democracy in Serbia, can be handled well, then I am sure that the region will have a very bright future and that this future is, indeed, in the European Union.
The Presidency has already responded to the points made as regards the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I can only second those views and say that the country is well placed to take an historic step forward this year if it acts with determination and sustained efforts to meet the benchmarks.
It is encouraging that the Macedonian Government has established an action plan to meet benchmarks and a new national plan for the adoption of the
. Now I want to encourage the country to implement its own plans and thus pave the way for a positive recommendation from the Commission in the coming autumn.
Several of you referred to visa liberalisation. I can inform you that the Commission is currently working on a road map for visa liberalisation for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. We will present a draft to the country shortly and, as the country is quite advanced in many respects, for instance on biometric passports, I hope that it will be able to meet the conditions of the road map rather swiftly and thus achieve the goal of visa-free travel for citizens of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia§.
I would also like to inform you that we shall shortly – before the end of April – present a road map of this kind for visa-free travel for Serbia where, likewise, ordinary citizens value this extremely highly. We want to facilitate, on our part, this important objective.
On Croatia, I can conclude that a clear majority of the European Parliament has a realistic view of what needs to be done by Croatia for the country to be able to succeed in concluding accession negotiations in the course of 2009. This is good, because the real friends of Croatia should not sweep the problems under the carpet but be honest about what needs to be done and encourage Croatia to implement the necessary reforms on the ground and without delay. Sustained efforts are needed.
Mr Posselt asked the Commission to step up its efforts and I can assure him that the Commission will have no problems whatsoever in processing negotiating positions in the various chapters once the benchmarks are met by Croatia itself."@en1
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