Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-258"
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"en.20000216.14.3-258"2
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"Mr President, as one who has been concerned with Macedonia for eight years, I have to contradict Mr Dupuis. What we are doing here is not hypocritical. We have reached a propitious moment and I think the Macedonians are glad about it. Please stop being so unpleasant and pouring cold water on everything. I think we should take a more positive approach here.
Macedonia did not go through a war. But it suffered from the war in its vicinity and from the sanctions, as it is still suffering from the sanctions that were rightly imposed on the neighbouring countries. It suffered enormously from the influx of refugees during the Kosovo war. So we must admit that developments in Macedonia have followed surprisingly continuous democratic lines. This is a country that has difficult inter-ethnic problems to deal with at home, and is resolving them with increasing success. Let me emphasise that we can congratulate Macedonia on its exemplary legislation on ethnic minorities and the way it applies it and that the consistent policy of integrating the 30% of ethnic Albanians in government activity, in government policy and in society, is a precondition for peaceful coexistence in Macedonia.
I am glad to see that the hope Mr Swoboda expressed in his report will be fulfilled early in March, i.e. that we will finally have an EU delegation there and that we, as the European Union, will finally have a greater role to play there. I believe that the opening of these negotiations on the stability and association process is the logical conclusion of a salutary and positive trend in that country. As a sign of our political commitment, we must finally show Macedonia in practice that we are indeed rewarding its own welcome regional cooperation by genuinely embarking on regional projects. Let me name just two small ones: the rapid resolution of the problem of the frontier crossing with Kosovo in Blace and the creation of Corridor 8, from Albania via Macedonia to Bulgaria. I think Mr Swoboda has drafted an excellent report, and it has my wholehearted support."@en1
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