Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-12-Speech-2-178"
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"en.20050412.27.2-178"2
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".
Mr President, I am very touched by what Mr Schmit said, on behalf of the Council, about the EU’s social values. It is in the light of those values of the EU that we should view this enlargement. There is no doubt that Romania and Bulgaria should, in time, form part of the European Union, but from the point of view of agriculture and the Committee on Agriculture, I have to conclude that there is no sign of the funding having yet been sorted out. It is a complete mystery how we will be funding the accession of those two countries. I would remind you of the social rights you mentioned and the values we uphold. I assume that it is not the Council’s intention that the 25 current Member States’ rural areas should fund this accession. That is inconsistent with the EU’s high values and so I assume that the Council will pay cash on the nail.
The second point concerns the functioning of those countries in a new European Union. The Commission was right to raise questions about border control. I would note that our excellent food safety policy has enabled the European Union to achieve a high standard, and that is an area in which Romania leaves a great deal to be desired. You have to realise that, if we were required to take a decision now, large parts of Romania would not be able to join the common European market when the time comes, while we do sell products on their market; the fact that 30% to 40% of the population still lives in the countryside and has to make a living from it means that Romania is not far enough advanced in this area. I may be putting it bluntly, but honesty compels me to do this if I study the countryside’s social structure.
I would like to congratulate Bulgaria on its reform programme and on what it has done about ownership rights. It has also managed to make a good job of implementing its rural development programme, in contrast to Romania, which I have to criticise for failing to spend sufficient SAPARD funds to get rural development underway. It would therefore be valuable if Parliament were to have some extra time to take a decision, because the new government has made a good start, but results are at present thin on the ground. Those who draw a comparison with previous accessions must be realistic. Bulgaria is moving towards the ten countries that joined most recently, but Romania is lagging behind in respect of rural development, agricultural policy, the risk of animal diseases and legislation in the area of food safety. That helps determine our European values which we hold dear, which we uphold, and which, in our view, benefit society, provided we can enforce them. Unfortunately, at the moment, I have to conclude that there are many points of criticism to be made about Romania in terms of its agriculture."@en1
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