Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-020"
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"en.20020703.2.3-020"2
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"President-in-Office, you take on the presidency of the European Council at a time when the Union faces its greatest-ever challenge: the largest expansion of our Community in the history of European integration. If you succeed – as we are confident you will – your presidency will tear down the last vestiges of the Iron Curtain. As you rightly point out in your programme, Europe will have come full circle, from the Copenhagen Summit of 1993, which set the accession criteria, to the Copenhagen Summit which reunites Europe in 2002.
President-in-Office, with such a magnitude of tasks you shoulder a great burden. Re-uniting Europe is rightly your number one concern. We wish you well and we offer you our support, for it is on our generation this responsibility falls; it is to us this challenge is made and it is with us that hope resides.
Why are Liberals in this House confident that you will succeed? Not only because you have prepared so thoroughly for this task but also because you assume the presidency of the Council at a time when Liberals also occupy the presidencies of the European Commission and the European Parliament. With governments of left and right bowing to narrow national interests and placing in jeopardy this historic reunification, history appeals to the generosity of the liberal spirit. We appeal to Blair and Schröder on the left and to Aznar, Berlusconi and Chirac on the right to pause for a moment and ponder: what picture will Europe project to the world if you squabble like Roman soldiers under the cross over a fraction of 1% of GDP?
It is not easy to be a Liberal when greed and prejudice fill the air, but rest assured, President-in-Office, that Liberal Democrats in this House will maintain our unfailing support for enlargement under the criteria laid down in Copenhagen. I regret that the Spanish presidency was not able to lighten your workload by making greater progress on agriculture and fisheries, which have been spoken of today. While we strongly support reform of the CAP and the CFP, this must not be a precondition for enlargement. Let nobody assume that in our eagerness to secure the prize of enlargement, we will allow reform to fall by the wayside. But neither will we be held to ransom by the practice which allows the European Union's agenda to be dictated by the timetable of national elections.
The other hurdle that you must surmount is the paucity of public preparedness. A Eurobarometer poll shows that only one citizen in five feels well informed about EU enlargement. Ireland must approve the Nice Treaty, and beyond Copenhagen, national parliaments and this House must ratify the accession treaties. If popular fears about candidate countries and the costs of enlargement are not addressed, the process could yet be derailed. However, this challenge will be in large measure addressed if Denmark's proud tradition of openness and accountability is put to good use in opening up the Council beyond the timid measures agreed in Seville, and if you give your excellent European Affairs Minister free rein to take on the Eurosceptics.
In justice and home affairs the ELDR Group welcomes your detailed programme to protect our people from terrorism. We hope that as good Liberals you will demonstrate the same zeal in taking forward measures to protect citizens' freedoms, as you show in tackling terrorist threats. In the area of immigration and asylum, I appeal to you to use the tried and tested Community method to make progress and to overcome the short-sighted opposition of others to a European border guard corps.
In answer to the remarks of my friend, Mr Baron Crespo, I would far rather be an asylum-seeker trying to get into Denmark – where I would have a greater chance of success – than one of the huddled masses trying to get into Mr Blair's bleak Britain.
On sustainable development, your commitment to concentrate on measures to put people back to work and ensure a sound economy rather than add to the proliferation of targets is music to Liberal Democrat ears. We also applaud your aim to match further progress on energy liberalisation with common ground rules on energy taxation, and you can count on our support to broker the necessary deals on the many financial services measures needed by the end of this year if we are to complete the financial services action plan on time by 2004."@en1
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