Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-09-Speech-3-316"
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"en.20080709.32.3-316"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, The European Union cannot perform its function as a reliable and stable global partner unless it remains able to act and pursues a refined strategy that responds to the specific needs of different countries. We cannot admit all our neighbours as members and are therefore obliged, if only in their own interests, to offer them an appealing and worthwhile alternative.
We must devise an efficient neighbourhood policy worthy of the name. The opening of our education, culture and youth programmes and the establishment of a special economic area are examples of such an approach. The options enumerated in Mr Brok’s excellent report must therefore be fully developed and fleshed out as quickly as possible. This is the only way to promote stability, peace, respect for human rights and economic reforms in the countries that are our neighbours.
The situation is different, however, in the countries of the Western Balkans, which have had a clear prospect of accession for some time. A glance at the map will suffice to see clearly that they are in the heartland of the European Union, by which I mean that they are surrounded by Member States. Our policy there is based on logical steps. One country is already negotiating its accession to the EU, while others have signed stabilisation and association agreements with the EU – all of them except Kosovo, in fact. Our political action there is the litmus test of our credibility in the field of foreign policy and the guarantor of lasting peace and stability in the EU.
I do not like it when Turkey and Croatia are invariably mentioned in the same breath. The conditions and backgrounds are entirely different, and everyone should be aware of that. Croatia is the first of the Western Balkan countries whose accession negotiations could be completed in 2009. The EU should expedite Croatia’s accession, thereby signalling to Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo that the essential and often painful social, judicial and economic reforms are worth the effort.
Responsibility for the future accession of these countries, however, will then lie primarily in the hands of their own politicians, who are accountable to the electorate in their respective countries."@en1
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