Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-06-Speech-3-051"
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"en.20021106.6.3-051"2
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"Mr President, the Brussels Summit was above all about enlargement of the European Union. The British Conservative Party has argued strongly and consistently in favour of the enlargement eastwards of the EU since the Berlin Wall fell some 13 years ago. Indeed, the manifesto on which I and my colleagues were elected in 1999 states quite clearly the reasons why we support this process so enthusiastically. It stated that enlargement is an historic opportunity to advance the principles for which Europe should stand: free trade, free markets, deregulation and cooperation. It would also mean more trade, more stability and more prosperity for the existing Member States of the European Union. Furthermore, the European Union simply cannot ignore the moral duty that it owes to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
At Brussels, significant progress was made towards achieving agreement on the entry of 10 applicant states at the Copenhagen Council in December. My party warmly welcomes this. Europe will be a better place as a result of enlargement and I congratulate the Danish Presidency on the skill and the commitment it has displayed in reaching this point.
However, given the fact that we have waited 13 years for this historic moment, I want to reiterate that there must be no foot-dragging, no more delays and no more last-minute vested interests should be allowed to stand in the way. On no account should we allow budgetary discussions to be derailed by reopening issues that have been long settled, in particular, the continuation of the British budgetary abatement, which was agreed unanimously by heads of government at Berlin in 1999. This budgetary abatement is both fair and justified and any attempt to use it as a smokescreen to disguise unwillingness to reform the CAP must be dismissed as political opportunism.
I regret the fact that those Member States which most actively promote CAP reform, including the British Prime Minister, were so comprehensively out-manoeuvred at Brussels. I hope they recover their negotiating skills by the time we get to Copenhagen."@en1
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