Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-149"
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"en.20051025.20.2-149"2
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"Madam President, I warmly congratulate Commissioner Rehn and his expert team in Brussels, as well as Mr Jonathan Scheele and his expert team in Bucharest.
The Commission’s work becomes ever more vital in the final months which bring to a conclusion the long and arduous trek that both nations – Romania and Bulgaria – have undertaken in their search for the promised land of EU membership.
This is the best report yet for Romania. It is a matter of pride to me that this comes out now, under the British Presidency. I want to congratulate not just Mr Quinton Quayle, the British Ambassador in Bucharest, but the entire diplomatic corps of all EU Member States who have put such time, effort and energy into assisting Romania in achieving her goal.
We have the enlargement minister from Romania in the diplomatic gallery with us today, as well as the minister for child protection and the minister for child adoption, Mrs Teodora Bertzi.
Perhaps, therefore, I could comment most warmly on the triumph of the reform of child protection that has taken place during the period under discussion, since 1999. That year, at the Council of Ministers in Helsinki, three challenges were placed in front of Romania: children, corruption and the civil service. The first challenge was tackled powerfully by successive governments, presidents and prime ministers. The result now is that Romania offers a model that has been widely acclaimed and applauded as providing, in some ways, even better services and better protection for her six-and-a-half million children than some EU Member States, and certainly other countries in the wider neighbourhood. I believe we shall learn more about that model as it becomes replicated elsewhere in the coming months and years.
Overall, Romania has undergone a complete transformation from a country in 1990 that was dark, slow, tired, exhausted, with almost no life, no light, no fun, no laughter and little trade. Today it has been transformed into a nation that is once more alive and vibrant.
Now we have to look at measures that will assist the public, particularly as regards public health – which is at a very low ebb, livelihoods and poverty reduction. Entering the European Union is indeed the long-term answer to achieving a rapid rise in levels of prosperity.
However, there remains one Achilles’ heel clearly identified in the Commission’s report today: corruption. Corruption is enemy number one of the people; it is enemy number one when you seek to reduce poverty; enemy number one when you are trying to improve health, livelihoods and futures of a population. Much must be done to fight this enemy, but I believe and know that it can be tackled and that in Romania it can be conquered. This has already happened in some sectors. Now the same effort and energy must continue in the other sectors, particularly in justice, which is so critical for the Romanian people.
I seek no time delay. I hope and believe that at some time in 2007 we will be able to say: welcome, Romania, you are now one of us."@en1
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