Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-09-Speech-3-323"
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"en.20080709.32.3-323"2
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"Mr President, the Brok report relates to one of the most outstanding successes of the European Union: the enlargement process. If you will allow me, I would like to make three comments.
First, enlargement has highlighted the Union’s so-called ‘capacity for change’. The desire for integration has been a powerful stimulus for profound political and economic change in many European countries. Those countries have gone on to become members of the Union, thereby benefiting themselves and also the existing Member States. The fifth enlargement is the most recent proof of this success.
Second, I endorse the concepts, advocated by the Commission, of conditionality, consolidation and communication, concepts which also inform the Brok report. I also support the requirement that the Union must strengthen its integration capacity. In fact, enlargements demand that the Union be able to assimilate them and continue to function properly. In order to do so, it needs to carry out institutional reforms where necessary and, for example, secure its financial resources. Enlargements must not endanger the common policies or the objectives of the Union. Furthermore, I endorse the need for an ambitious communication policy, something which the Union has so far lacked. It is true that we have not been able to put over the benefits of enlargement to our citizens.
Finally, the Brok report refers to the possibility of creating a specific area of the Union for eastern countries which as yet have no membership prospects. As paragraph 19 of the report indicates, such an area or zone would be based on common policies in various areas, from the rule of law and democracy to education and migration. In my view, many of these common policies should not just be implemented with respect to our eastern neighbours but should also be extended to countries bordering the Mediterranean. The latter have enjoyed very close relations with the European Union for over fifty years. The European Neighbourhood Policy and the so-called Barcelona Process – now the Mediterranean Union – need to ensure that countries on the southern shore do not feel as though they are being treated as second class citizens."@en1
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