Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-14-Speech-3-157"
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"en.20051214.15.3-157"2
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".
Mr President, the Liberal Group is appreciative of the progress that Bulgaria and Romania have made in their efforts to draw closer to the European Union. We shall continue to support both countries as they progress along this road, while also observing very closely the manner in which they discharge their responsibilities as candidates. As my group has repeatedly emphasised, both countries must be judged on the basis of their own performance and independently of one another.
The Commission will be producing its next progress report on the two countries early next year, and, as Mr Millán Mon has remarked, it will be doing so in a changed climate, one brought about by the constitutional crisis in which the EU finds itself. The debate on this will be held in mid-2006.
That makes all the more important the two countries’ efforts, now that they are on the final straight, to become as efficient as possible and to perform as well as possible, for those are the sort of Member States that the European Union needs. There is also the issue to the EU’s capacity to absorb new members and, associated with it, that of the future of enlargement policy. It is worthy of note that the debate in the Council on Macedonia is a symptom of this changed climate.
Let me just say a few things with specific reference to Bulgaria. Here we have a balanced document from Mr Van Orden, which gives the Bulgarian Government credit for its efforts and, while highlighting the country’s economic dynamism and average 4% growth rates, spells out in clear terms where Bulgaria still needs to make progress. One important aspect of the text from the Committee on Foreign Affairs is that it calls on high-ranking civil servants in Bulgaria to make public their renunciation of every kind of corruption and to support the enactment of regulations to disclose their incomes and financial arrangements. This would make for greater transparency and enhance trust in them.
The Liberal Group would like to see Romania and Bulgaria become Member States of the EU in 2007. I might add that I believe that we should be conducting this debate in Brussels rather than in Strasbourg."@en1
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