Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-04-Speech-2-150"
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"en.20010904.7.2-150"2
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".
Mr President, to my surprise I have just heard in the English interpretation of proceedings that my name is now Michel. It is true that I work closely with Minister Michel, but full metamorphosis has not yet taken place.
I should like to begin, ladies and gentlemen, by apologising for the fact that I arrived a little late and was not here promptly at 3 p.m. That was because I was also taking part on behalf of the presidency in the Conference of Committee Chairmen. Since I do not have the gift of ubiquity, I could not be here on time, for which I again apologise.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, many of you have referred either during this morning’s speeches or in the (incidentally very interesting) reports that you have introduced – usually with much pleasure and sympathy – to the contacts you have had with people in the candidate countries, the visits you have made, and so on. The same applies to me. I have been visiting the capitals of all candidate countries with which we have entered into negotiations at least once and, in certain cases, twice, three times or more. It is true that that creates a bond and leads to a more than purely theoretical political interest in the countries concerned. I find it almost touching to see how you, in your progress reports, are concerned almost like godparents with the welfare of the candidate countries on which you have to report. I should, by the way, like to emphasise that this Parliament, in its successive constituent forms, has been one of the great engines of enlargement. An engine that has never misfired and never stopped, and I believe that you can wear that badge with pride.
But there is more. I should like in particular, not only echoing Mrs Lalumière, but also because it reflects my own feelings, to congratulate most sincerely the Commission, Commissioner Verheugen and his department on the gigantic task of negotiation that they are carrying out. At present, they are conducting over 300 different sets of negotiations. You have only to multiply the number of headings by the number of Member States. Of course I know that there are parallels, but two cases are never entirely similar.
Public opinion, which is scarcely aware of this because it is insufficiently informed, therefore thinks that accession is taking so long because we are either having second thoughts or because we have not taken particularly effective decisions. It has no clear idea of how complex this whole matter is. That is not the fault of public opinion. That is the fault of all those, including ourselves, who have not told the public the facts.
Although the work is not yet complete, it has been said that the end is in sight. As a result, tension is rising, of course, as are the number of sweepstakes on who will be crossing the finishing line first. I agree entirely with Commissioner Verheugen that it would be wrong of us to speculate at this point on which candidate countries will be in the first wave and which will not. It is still far too early, but we must all start discussing together how we can effectively translate these accessions into reality. I would like, if I may, to tell a little anecdote here to highlight just one aspect of all this: when Sweden, Finland and Austria joined – and that was also a chronicle of a much-heralded fact that had long been known about – there were nevertheless insufficient interpreters and translators. That problem will, of course, become even more complex, but all the institutions will have discuss this too in good time.
I said this morning that enlargement is the future of the Union. Mr Jonckheer, a compatriot of mine but from a different party, has denied that, saying that the future is uncertain. I repeat what I said this morning. I must add that I did not say this just for formality’s sake. I said it because I am firmly convinced that it is true, although I am just as prepared to say that the future will not be limited to enlargement, but that is the first great challenge that we have to meet in the near future. That is absolutely certain.
My country’s Prime Minister shares this view, and in fact will undoubtedly be providing, and I say this to you very definitely, a role for candidate countries in his proposals for the preparation for the IGC. This is in answer to a concern expressed this morning by group chairman, Mr Poettering.
During the so-called “Gymnich meeting” at the end of this week, the candidate countries will be taking part in the discussions on the future of Europe. During the informal Council of Ghent and, of course, during the European Council of Laeken, enlargement will be discussed at length. It will be approached in the spirit that Commissioner Verheugen and I myself set out and also in the spirit which you have supported almost without exception in your respective speeches."@en1
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