Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-070"
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"en.19991214.4.2-070"2
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"Mr President, in my view, the problems and issues to be addressed following the Helsinki Summit fall into two basic entities. The first is the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference and it is particularly sad that, following the Helsinki Summit and following the extensive debates held here in the European Parliament, the Presidency conclusions concerning the Intergovernmental Conference are so brief. Perhaps they are not quite as brief as we had feared but they are much briefer than what we consider necessary for the European Union to prepare itself sufficiently for the passage from the 20th to the 21st century.
Mr President, it is clear that, this time more than ever, the Intergovernmental Conference and the review of the founding Treaties of the European Union are directly related to another important European Union decision: enlargement. And since the European Union is about to take on board a large number of States – 13 in total – it would make sense to begin preparations to receive these States.
The question which arises from the Presidency conclusions is whether or not the commitments, yes the commitments, and the opinions in those conclusions allow the European Union to prepare itself to receive these new States. I am afraid the answer is no. In a number of resolutions, the European Parliament has already indicated how extensive these changes and reforms of the Treaties would have to be. And the European Parliament will, of course, continue to indicate the way forward given that
as I said before, the decisions of the Helsinki Summit on the Intergovernmental Conference are clearly
and unfortunately, far too limited in scope. There was no mention of the direction the European Union should be taking nor of the vision it should have. There was no mention of the approach it should be adopting. There was no mention of a number of new issues which are, if you like, the main goals and problems facing us in the 21st century.
As for enlargement, which is clearly a very important process and one which must be continued, integrated and completed, a new candidate country is now involved in this process: Turkey. At this point in time, Turkey has been granted a new status, that of a candidate country. However, at the same time, a number of conditions have been laid down which Turkey must fulfil before it can become a member of the European Union. It is important that these conditions be fulfilled. It is important that Turkey shows, in its desire to become a member of the European family, that it really does respect human rights, democracy and its neighbouring countries and that it truly wishes to find a calm and peaceful solution to any issues or problems which exist in relation to it."@en1
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