Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-17-Speech-3-234"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-11-17"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Treaty reform/next IGC2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19991117.7.3-234"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-11-17-Speech-3-2352
lpv:speaker	lp:Christopher Beazley2
lpv:spoken text	"I would like to thank the President-in-Office Mr Sasi for the comments he made earlier on during this debate. Firstly, he confirmed the continued cooperation between the Council and the European Parliament and his forthcoming visit to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. But he also confirmed that in the IGC enlargement would remain at the core, at the heart of the envisaged Treaty reforms and, secondly, that the timetable would be adhered to. I believe both of those are important aspects. First of all, on enlargement, we are talking here about enlargement of a very different scale and nature to anything that has happened before, and that has implications for the nature of the IGC which prepares for it. We are talking in the main about countries from Central and Eastern Europe which have enjoyed, as we all know, 40 years of dictatorship when civil society was emasculated, driven underground and destroyed. Although ten years have elapsed and great strides have now been made, I believe that a good deal of confidence-building is still required and that we need the openness that many of us have called for in the preparation and the implementation of these reforms. As the IGC takes place there are two aspects, therefore, that we in the European Parliament should remember. One is that in the past, IGCs have not prepared public opinion until the Treaty reforms had actually been agreed, particularly in reference to Maastricht. This had unfortunate consequences in a number of Member States. I believe we should learn the lessons from that mistake of the past and realise that the importance of this particular enlargement, the re-uniting of the European family, is something which our public at home needs to be made aware of while the IGC is actually taking place. And I believe that openness should also extend to the applicant countries themselves. It would be most unfortunate if we as the institutions of the EU saw this merely as a bureaucratic or a constitutional exercise to our own interest and our own advantage. It is specifically for the purpose of enlargement that openness is necessary. Therefore I believe that, where possible, not only should our own domestic public opinion be engaged at all stages but also the public opinion of the applicant countries in Central and Eastern Europe. I appreciate that that is a break in tradition from the nature of a governmental conference as we understood it in the past. But as I say, this is a very different type of IGC and therefore we have to be imaginative in the way that we present ourselves to the public."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Delegation to the EU-Slovenia Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-10-08--2002-01-14)3,3 unknown; Conservative and Unionist Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3 vice-chair; AFCO (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3,3 member; Delegation to the EU-Estonia Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-10-06--2002-01-14)3,3 substitute; Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3,3 member; EPP-ED (1999-07-20--2002-03-07)3,3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Beazley (PPE-DE )."1

Named graphs describing this resource:

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph