Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-263"
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"en.20000216.14.3-263"2
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"Mr President, the agreement we are debating today, as analysed by Mr Swoboda, which I hope we will adopt tomorrow, constitutes the second politically positive step, after the stability pact for the area.
There is another small step, which is related to the recent partial lifting of the embargo decided by our 15 governments for Yugoslavia. For about 10 years, the situation in the area has been fluid. Both as an historical period and, in particular, as a political period, 10 years is a very long time. Under those conditions, then, there has been a real failure. In that sense, the agreement we will be voting on tomorrow, which contributes towards stability in the area, is
a move in the right direction. In essence, FYROM is a miniature version of the former Yugoslavia, regardless of where one or another minority holds supremacy. From that standpoint, the fact that so far it has resisted any influences from its wider environment is a very positive element and under no circumstances should any of us, any State, any policy or any view, impel that small republic towards external, disruptive movements in an effort to solve other problems, granted – let it be noted – that it has institutions which it can build upon still further and so become a real democracy.
In that area, there have been various policies from time to time, and what the European Union should guard against is the risk that, for ultimately superficial reasons, it may help to create banana republics elsewhere. We must be sure that, in seeking allies in the area, we must not always choose anyone who offers. We must choose those which are moderate, which have breadth of vision and which have a perception of peace and stability in the area.
I hope and wish, and am indeed certain, that the European Union, with maturity and with the measures it has begun to adopt, will little by little construct, in the wider area, the necessary environment which it needs itself. Let us not deceive ourselves: a Europe, one part of which is being held back because of frictions, misinterpretations and conflicts, and because of nationalistic clashes, will never be a Europe that has brought its own house to the level it wants.
In any event, speaking now as a Greek, I want to tell some of the speakers I listened to earlier that much of what was said is fixated on other times and places. They have quite failed to grasp the new conditions created in the area; the new and positive conditions which have been created, in very many cases on Greece’s initiative. You should know that the country which cooperates most with FYROM and has the best relations with it, in the entire area, is Greece, and this has contributed greatly to the stability of the area. I say this just so that we know where we stand."@en1
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