Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-06-Speech-3-179"
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"en.20021106.13.3-179"2
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"Mr President, Joost Lagendijk's report covers a great many issues, and we cannot comment on all of them here. However, I would like to start by saying that I totally support it, and that applies equally to my group. This part of Europe is a multi-speed region. Some countries, such as Macedonia and Croatia, already have agreements; theirs are stabilisation and association agreements, although that does not of course necessarily mean that all the conditions are being complied with in detail. Joost has already listed the deficits.
It is, however, with some satisfaction that we can consider Albania, a country which has managed to make up for the fraudulent elections held in 2001 by electing a consensus president, something very few people expected, including the Commission. We would now like to see an early start made on the negotiations around this process, although we know that it will not be concluded rapidly, as there is still a lot of homework to be done.
Turning to Bosnia and Herzegovina, it has to be said that this country is struggling to square the circle. I am referring to the Dayton Agreement. I simply wish to say, for example, that 67% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's entire budget is spent on ministers' salaries. There are over 120 ministers who only exist because they are virtually stipulated in the Dayton Agreement. Something has to be done about this and the last elections were a warning signal.
Serbia and Montenegro's President and Prime Minister are squabbling with each other instead of jointly fighting for their country. Serbia and Montenegro should now be finding a joint path towards European membership, and the Solana proposal, no matter how limited it may be, is at present the best and the only way forward.
With regard to Kosovo, which I visited again just last week, I can only say that we should be able to make sure that its peoples can coexist, thus making Serbian enclaves unnecessary. They have many problems in common. There are ethnic tensions in some countries, there are unsatisfactory refugee return arrangements, there is the battle against trafficking in human beings, which is also unsatisfactory, and there is corruption. Only one thing is clear, and that is that we must not back off from our commitment. That is the litmus test for our credibility. As Joost has already said, we need to have a precise idea of what we wish to achieve in this region in the near future."@en1
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