Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-18-Speech-3-059"
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"en.20021218.3.3-059"2
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"Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, the year that is coming to its end has been a remarkable one for Europe. The introduction of euro notes and coins has made the internal market a domestic one. The Copenhagen resolutions have set in motion the process of ratification for enlargement as a precondition for the reunification of Europe, and have enabled the legacy of Yalta and of the post-war era to be overcome. This move also has knock-on effects on all the Member States and candidate countries, including my own country, which possessed the longest external – and dead – border. From Europe's margin, we have moved back, to be – as the Austrian national anthem puts it – like a heart at its centre.
Our task is to draw closer together, to build up Europe's stability and its capacity to act, to listen, to be desirous of mutual understanding, to tear down walls and cut through barbed-wire fences – wherever they were or will be set up. Neither Copenhagen nor participation in the 2004 elections to Parliament bring the accession process to a conclusion. Information, communication and reform continue to be needed. The European projects call for the public to be more deeply involved, and not only prior to the ratification of treaties. Far from being already at an end, the process of enlargement is moving forward, and I am thinking not only of Bulgaria and Romania, but also of Croatia and the countries of the former Yugoslavia, of Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
As my final point, let me say that transit policy is evidence of the fact that the Danish Presidency, to which I am very grateful, is at work right through to its last day. Let me tell you, as an Austrian, that we give the utmost support to the proposal to be found in COREPER, because it is right and good. It is my expectation that a resolution will be passed at 3 p.m. this afternoon, or, failing that, at the extraordinary council of Transport Ministers on 31 December. Let us put an end to transitional arrangements; let us establish European rules and introduce the infrastructure costs directive in 2003 at the latest!"@en1
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