Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-09-Speech-3-053"
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"en.20030409.3.3-053"2
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"Mr President, now that the European Union is to be enlarged by ten new Member States, it is not only an historic moment for the EU, it is a fact that also raises the issue of what our common core values are. I venture to state before this Parliament that our common core values in actual fact found expression through the way in which Communism and dictatorship in the former Eastern European countries were done away with. In the end, they were actually disbanded without violence, demonstrating the fact that, as Europeans, we do not need military solutions to unite us. We have a common culture and community of values, based upon a Jewish and Christian spiritual inheritance and a culture of humanism. These core values are indispensable to our joint construction of an EU that is to be enlarged to include 25 Member States.
I want to say something about Cyprus, which is the country to which I had a special commitment when it came to enlargement towards the east. I wish to protest against the fact that the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus, or 37% of the island, in actual fact threatens the EU as a peace project. We must never lose sight of how unreasonable it would be for Turkey to be allowed to become a member of the European Union while it continued to occupy a new Member State, in the form of Cyprus. We must not forget Cyprus, and we must realise the absolute necessity of Turkish troops’ withdrawing from northern Cyprus if the Helsinki decision on Turkey’s candidacy is to become a reality. It is important for us now to help realise the desire of the Turkish Cypriot majority for a reunited and unified Cyprus, as expressed in this year’s large demonstrations in Nicosia.
Germany and Berlin were divided for 28 years. Cyprus and Nicosia have been divided for 29 years. Let there be an end to this."@en1
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