Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-07-Speech-3-088"
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"en.20100707.7.3-088"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity today to address a few words to the plenary sitting of the European Parliament on behalf of the Presidency of the European Union and to present to you our plans for the accession negotiations with Iceland, a country with which we have all become more familiar in recent months because of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. My apologies to the interpreters for forcing them to pronounce this tongue twister.
Meanwhile, the Commission has already sent the Council the draft negotiating framework, and I hope that the General Affairs Council, which I will be chairing on 26 July, will be able to adopt it so as to pave the way for the first intergovernmental accession conference to be held with Iceland even before the end of this month.
If confirmed, this timetable would enable us to start accession negotiations before the summer recess. Iceland will then be subjected to screening by the Commission, which is intended to determine how prepared candidate countries are to commence negotiations in a number of specific areas of the
. These areas are subdivided, as you know, into chapters. In the autumn, the Commission will present its first regular report on Iceland’s progress towards accession. Based on the results of the screening conducted by the Commission and on a proposal which the Commission will submit to it, the Council will decide on the criteria to be applied for the purposes of opening and closing each chapter.
Some people are asking how long these accession negotiations with Iceland will last. Let us first emphasise the fact that, as a Member of the European Economic Area and of the Schengen Area, Iceland already has very close links with the EU and already complies with a large proportion of the
. However, it would be wrong for the Council to lay down a timetable for the negotiations or to anticipate what they will cover.
Indeed, in other fields, such as fishing for example – including whale hunting, an issue on which Europe has a clear position and which falls under the
with which Iceland will also have to comply – and agriculture and rural development, negotiations will probably be a little more difficult. Enlargement is decided by merit rather than by an artificial timetable.
However, I should like to emphasise that the Belgian Presidency is firmly committed to moving this process forward.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the enlargement process has so far been a success story, both for the European Union and for Europe as a continent. Therefore, the Belgian Presidency looks forward to cooperating with you on this in a positive and constructive manner in the course of the coming six months, not only on the matter of Iceland’s accession but also with regard to the other candidate Member States.
I should like to underline what my Prime Minister has just clearly stated in his presentation. The Belgian Presidency is particularly aware that the European Parliament has also played a crucial role, not least since the Treaty of Lisbon, in matters such as support for the enlargement process by ensuring, among other things, that the citizens of the European Union, too, continue to support this process.
I should also like to express my appreciation for the efforts made by the European Parliament and for your constructive contributions to the EU enlargement policy, for example, in the present resolution, when it comes to convincing public opinion and continuing to drum up sufficient support for the enlargement policy amongst all European citizens. Thank you for your attention.
First of all, I should like to emphasise, as you have also pointed out in your most recent resolution on the enlargement strategy, that enlargement has been a success story for the EU and for Europe as a whole and that it has brought benefits to both long-standing and new Member States. The enlargement process will continue to contribute to peace, democracy and stability on the European continent. It gives the EU greater weight in the world and also yields concrete benefits for our citizens, amongst other things, in the form of greater prosperity, better prospects for economic growth and new opportunities for cooperation, for instance, as regards transport, energy and many other areas.
Building on the progress made by previous Presidencies and in line with the renewed consensus on enlargement, which is contained in the conclusions of the European Council of December 2006, and with the programme of the Council Presidency trio, the Belgian Presidency will continue with these activities. Perhaps I should point out that steering enlargement in the right direction is one of the five priority axes of the Belgian Presidency.
The European Council of 17 June welcomed the Commission Opinion on Iceland’s application for membership of the European Union and the recommendation that accession negotiations with Iceland be opened. In the light of the renewed consensus on enlargement, the European Council has established that Iceland is compliant with the political criteria set in 1993 by the Copenhagen European Council and has decided that accession negotiations are to be opened.
The European Council has also requested that the Council set out a general negotiating framework and has also issued a reminder of the objective of the negotiations, namely that Iceland adopt the
in its entirety and ensure full implementation and enforcement thereof. This means that Iceland must comply with its existing obligations, such as those under the European Economic Area Agreement, which the supervisory authority of the European Free Trade Association has pointed out. In addition, Iceland needs to take action on the other weak areas to which the Commission referred in its Opinion, including financial services.
The European Council has also welcomed Iceland’s intention to focus on these issues and is convinced that it will actively continue with its efforts to settle any outstanding issues.
Finally, the European Council has confirmed that, as in the case of all the other accession candidates, negotiations will be based on Iceland’s own particular merits, and that the rate of progress will depend on the progress that the country makes towards satisfying the criteria laid down during the negotiations.
How are we going to proceed on this matter? We will apply the same procedure as the one we followed during previous accession processes, in line with the renewed consensus on enlargement.
The Council will first adopt a negotiating framework for Iceland, which will set out the general principles governing the negotiations and the conditions that it will have to satisfy. This negotiating framework will also take account of Iceland’s particular merits and its specific situation and characteristics. The fact that this country has recently benefited from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance will clearly help prepare it for accession."@en1
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