Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-06-Speech-3-052"
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"en.20021106.6.3-052"2
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"Mr President, I too would like to congratulate the Danish Presidency for being able to keep hold of the big picture and not allowing the summit to be side-tracked by arcane details and what are relatively small amounts of money. We must never lose sight of the fact that the benefits of enlargement far outweigh the costs. The costs of not enlarging are far greater than the costs of enlarging.
You may recall that at a previous debate I took inspiration from the late, great Elvis Presley when he said 'it's now or never'. I would like to take inspiration today from a rather lesser personage, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, who yesterday said to the Conservative Party 'unite or die'. The same principle of course applies to the European Union. I am glad to see the Brussels Summit demonstrate that Europe is more capable of learning that lesson than the British Conservative Party.
I recognise the Danish Presidency's enthusiasm for wishing to carve out a road from Copenhagen to Copenhagen, but I want to be clear that Copenhagen is not the end of the process – hopefully it is the beginning of the end of the process. There is still a lot of work to be done by the candidate countries, we still have a ratification process, and this Parliament will take its assent powers very seriously indeed. We will only vote 'yes' if we are clear that a proper deal has been done.
So we must not allow the candidate countries to think the process is over. I would like to remind everyone that the Commission will be producing a further progress report six months before the date of accession.
I would also like to congratulate the Danish Presidency for establishing an indicative framework for further agricultural spending which in no way prejudices future reform of the CAP, nor future discussions on financing the European Union, nor our international trade commitments in the Doha round. It allows us to move forward but still leaves this discussion open for us to reach a sensible conclusion to that debate.
I am also pleased with the wording of the resolution on Bulgaria and Romania. I recently represented the Socialist Group in Romania, and was singularly impressed by the progress that is being made under the current government, which has finally got to grips with some of the issues.
I welcome the decision of the Council to increase the safeguard clauses from two years to three years, although I am concerned by the wording which says that these could apply from day one of accession. I assume that relates to the Commission's report six months before the date of accession, but I must say it would not give a good impression to the voters, either in the accession countries or in the European Union, if we start to apply safeguard clauses from day one. Quite frankly, if those are necessary, those countries should probably not be coming into the European Union at that point.
Finally, as a former chairman of the Lithuanian JPC, I would remind the Council that Russia is not a Member State of the European Union, it is not a candidate country, it does not have a veto over European Union affairs. Therefore, our number one priority on Kaliningrad is to guarantee the sovereignty of the Lithuanian State and its ability to enter Schengen.
I would also like to congratulate the Council on resolving the issues relating to the financing of the closure of Ignalina power station. This shows a remarkable sign of solidarity from the existing Member States towards a small candidate country."@en1
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