Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-18-Speech-3-051"
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"en.20021218.3.3-051"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, in closing the Copenhagen European Council which brought together the Heads of State and Government of the Fifteen Member States, the President-in-Office, Mr Rasmussen, stressed the truly historic nature of this event which puts an end to the period of separation.
The subject of our work over recent days was a common vision for the future of our continent. A stroke of good luck but also intense and extremely commendable work by the Union, and especially by the candidate countries, has meant that the enlargement process, launched in 1992 in the Danish capital and forming the basis of the famous political criteria, named after Copenhagen, on democracy, the rule of law and human rights, has been completed in the same place.
Look at how much progress has been made over the last 50 years! Look at how many barriers have been torn down, how many misunderstandings have been overcome! Twenty-five – soon to be twenty-seven – States are finally working together to achieve the objectives of freedom, democracy and responsibility. Such cooperation honours the fight that millions of our predecessors waged at the price of intense suffering and sacrifice.
We still have a great deal of difficult ground to cover, no one has any illusions about this. The European Union must, in particular, respond to the need to make fundamental changes to the way it works and to its institutions. This is the work that the European Convention must bring to a successful conclusion under Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. We hope that the European Convention will lead to a draft for a single constitutional treaty that is legible and which responds to the need for a Europe that is more efficient, more democratic and perceived to be more legitimate by all European citizens.
Unless we fundamentally reform the way in which the European Union currently works, Europe’s reunification will lead to weaker political will within Europe and this is something that we certainly do not want."@en1
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