Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-13-Speech-4-018"
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"en.20050113.3.4-018"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I regret that we are unable to welcome a representative of Mr Solana, whose work in Ukraine has met with success. There, a people has stirred itself into action and, using peaceful means, forced the holding of free elections. Those who have seen the young people in Kiev’s tent camps cannot deny that this was accomplished – and was exemplary in showing what can be accomplished – with the persuasive power that peaceful democrats possess, and that this was comparable to the situation in which many of our peoples found themselves in 1989, 1990 and 1991.
Let us be in no doubt that we in this House helped to bring this about, as did the other institutions, which we had to win over in order that they might join in. Moreover, it has to be clear to us that this happened in order to set in motion a democratic process and, at the same time, to enable Ukraine to decide where it belongs. The fact is that, ever since the Helsinki Final Act, the vitally important thing about Europe is that every country possesses the right of self-determination – but its people have to fight for it. Where it goes once it has it is for the people themselves to decide.
We should no longer be thinking in terms of spheres of influence. In this Europe of ours, of course, balances have to be struck and bridges built in order to prevent new tensions from arising, including with our great neighbours in the East. If this is to work, we have to support the democratically elected President in such a way that it becomes apparent to his own people that deciding for democracy is worth it, and that there are rewards to be found in looking westwards. For that, the action plan is inadequate, and we have to do a lot more thinking. It must surely involve Ukraine having the prospect of joining the EU, and whether or not to do so it will have to decide for itself.
That means, though, that the European Union must create the conditions under which that can happen – and this is where I urge this House to help. Today, a remarkably large number of those who supported the idea of Ukraine joining the European Union were the same people who, yesterday, did not vote in favour of the Constitution. We must put ourselves in a position to welcome other countries as members; today, we are not, and we have to wait until things are really up and running in the ten new Member States. That is why we need to add to full membership the development of other options, such as Article 47 and a sensible neighbourhood policy including the possibility of participation in the European Economic Area.
If this is done in the right way, Moldova too will soon be moving towards democracy, as well as – I hope in the next few years – Belarus. We will end up with what happened in the Balkans happening on a wider scale, and to these countries we must offer something; not just membership in 20 years’ time, but something that is meaningful today.
I also ask the Commission and the Council to address this issue with less reticence and more imagination."@en1
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