Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-04-Speech-2-066"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010904.3.2-066"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, President-in-Office of the Council and Commissioner, first of all I would like to say on behalf of my group that we are extremely pleased that during the year now ended negotiations have truly made rapid progress and it has been possible to close one chapter after another. My group truly regards 2004 as a target timetable by which it is possible – not certain, but possible – that as many as ten new countries may join the European Union. Simultaneous accession by such a large group would,, of course, bring the advantage that we would avoid new division lines between the applicant countries, and in my opinion this is something which we must earnestly strive towards.
Mr Hänsch did a fine job of explaining how the enlargement process is one in which both the current and the future Member States of the European Union will benefit: everyone can benefit from this. I wish however to stress that this means that we must truly be able to create an economic and social dynamic so that these benefits will be realised even in the pre-accession period. Here I wish to stress the emphasis which my group places on this point: sustainable development must be sustainable not only economically, but also ecologically and socially. We need to emphasise that the applicant countries must take very seriously any Community legislation which aims to strengthen these sustainable characteristics. It goes without saying that children's rights and the principle of non-discrimination are the sort of principles to which we, as Europeans, must hold fast.
Mr. President, our group hopes that it would be possible to deploy additional resources in order to expedite this dynamic. Here we refer to the fact that the Community's funding framework for the years 2000-2006 contains some resources which could possibly be freed, since quite obviously no new Member States will be joining in 2002. Those resources which are freed on account of this fact could be deployed, even in the pre-accession period, as tools of agricultural and structural policy in order to strengthen this positive dynamic. We would like to see the common agricultural policy strongly reformed in such a direction that, instead of making direct aid payments to large farmers in the European Union or in the applicant countries, these resources would be firmly shifted to rural development and quality-oriented food production.
Finally, Mr President, one very important shortcoming in this process is that the involvement of citizens has, up to now, been particularly poor. We would like to take part in serious consideration of how we could increase the participation of ordinary citizens in the enlargement process also in the applicant countries, since at the moment what is happening is that it is only the narrow élites of society who find enlargement to their advantage, and it is these people who are pushing enlargement. A great many people, however, are perplexed, and fear that enlargement will be to their detriment. The position of women and the fight against poverty must be taken into account, and our group would like to emphasise these matters."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples