Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-04-04-Speech-3-230"
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"en.20010404.15.3-230"2
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"Mr President, it is a great honour and a pleasure for us to welcome you, in a spirit of friendship, to the European Parliament. As President of a new Federal Republic of Germany, you were able, in an exemplary way, to take up the challenge of national reunification before crossing the threshold of the new millennium.
Our current efforts to bring candidate countries up to the required economic and structural level already demand, and will continue to demand, a high financial input from the European Union. This is important not only for the candidate countries themselves but also for us, as it is not enough simply to bring about enlargement; we must make sure enlargement is successful.
Of course our efforts must be shared fairly and equitably, but I am sure that Germany will remain very vigilant in ensuring that any new aid we give to some countries is not simply the fruit of what we take away from others. I am thinking in particular of the need to maintain regional cohesion within the Union. We need to manage, in a true spirit of solidarity, the economic but primarily human crises currently unfolding due to BSE and foot-and-mouth disease. I am also thinking of the aid the Union gives to the countries of the South, which have been crushed by the weight of under-development and endemic diseases which are hard for our consciences to bear, and which are dangerous in the long term to world peace and stability.
To sum up, I would like to stress that, of all the countries which have contributed to ensuring that the European Parliament has gained recognition for its role in promoting the democratic functioning of the European Union, Germany has always been at the forefront. There are things we still need to work on, which the Nice Summit was unable to take as far as we would have liked. I know that today you are planning to give us the broad outlines of these issues, especially the ambitious project of European constitution. Mr President, I am very grateful to you for having come along to speak to the European Parliament. Without further ado, I give you the floor.
Since the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall, you have tried to underpin this reunification by reinforcing European cohesion and you have given strong signals, notably by committing yourself to a single currency, despite your attachment to the mark and your pride in the prosperity and stability it has given you.
The younger generations in your country legitimately feel that they have no reason to bear the burden of the dark years they did not live through.
Faced with the horrors perpetrated in Kosovo, you made the historic step of participating in the forces of the international community which were engaged in defending fundamental human rights. Now, you are playing your full role in establishing a European security force in the service of peace.
The Treaty of Nice gave better recognition to your demographic weight within the European Union, and all the other Member States, especially the least populated States, are expecting you, together with the other major States, to continue to ensure that the Community spirit continues to hold sway over numerical rules when decisions are taken at a European level.
As a result of its geographical location and economic dynamism, the Federal Republic of Germany will be at the forefront of the coming reunification of the entire continent of Europe within the Union. More than others, you have had the recent experience of the initial enthusiasm as well as the demands, difficulties and temporary frustrations such a process involves.
Mr President, as a result of the experience gained in its federal reorganisation, the Germany you lead will also have an eminent role in the great debate which the Nice Summit opened up, on its own initiative and that of Italy, via the declaration on the future of the Union. This will make it possible for us to jointly redefine the new qualitative architecture of an enlarged Union through a better balance of powers shared between Europe, the Member States and the regions.
Throughout the first half century of European integration, the financial contribution made by Germany to Community solidarity through the CAP and the cohesion funds has been pre-eminent. I would like to pay tribute to the successive Chancellors who stuck with this choice of solidarity, which attested to their determination to unify Europe and, especially over the last few decades, to Chancellor Schmidt, Chancellor Kohl and now to Chancellor Schröder."@en1
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