Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-26-Speech-2-182"
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"en.20060926.23.2-182"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, when people in my electoral district ask me why I support the accession of Bulgaria and Romania despite the fact that there are so many problems, that we have not yet been able to cope with the previous enlargement, that the Constitution has not been adopted, that there are so many unresolved issues in the countries themselves, I do not try to respond by referring to the various problems. That is the job of Commissioner Rehn, and he has done it today. There are still several issues that need to be resolved in Bulgaria and Romania. Several problems need to be described that require the governments to work towards a solution, and to convince the people that reforms are needed. All of this is being done and all of it is necessary. The shortcomings must be remedied.
This is not the time or the place to discuss the various problems, however. The accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU on 1 January 2007 will continue the integration in Europe that is unparalleled in the world. Our grandfathers and grandmothers were proud of Western European integration. Why can we not be proud of the pan-European integration we are furthering with today’s debate? Bulgaria and Romania are part of Europe, and I agree with Mr Poettering when he says that we should welcome them. On behalf of my group, I say ‘yes, they are welcome’.
What is at stake is nothing less than putting an end to the division of our continent that ran counter to its historical development, and became bitter reality after the Second World War. I was born in Western Europe. I was born in a country that was divided, and that was overjoyed when it managed to restore its unity: and rightly so, as Germany had deserved it.
What Germany deserved, the whole continent has deserved. The men and women who fought against the communist dictatorships in Bulgaria and Romania, the people there who, over the last sixteen years, have had to go through a process of transformation harder than the burdens faced by people in Western Europe in recent years: for all of this, these two countries have deserved to be rewarded with a welcome into the EU. After all, what problems would become easier if they remained outside? Which of our concerns would be easier to solve if they did not join? The answer is that nothing would be better if we left them outside. The reverse is true: the uncertainty in these countries and the whole Black Sea region would increase if we did not let them join. For this reason, it is also common sense to welcome them into our ranks.
Everything that has been achieved in European history, that has had to be fought for, has been achieved in the face of scepticism. I am fairly sure that there was no standing ovation in store for the Heads of State or Government of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France when, in 1950–52, they told their people of the need to include Germany in the European Coal and Steel Community, as it was then. There were very many people who said: Germany has just destroyed our country twice, and now we are supposed to welcome it into our Community? Now we are supposed to give it money? Yet the Heads of State or Government firmly believed that Germany’s integration into the European Community would bring peace and economic growth, and that integration would help to overcome the hatred and enmity – and it has.
What we are doing now is no different. The people of all our countries are asking whether we are taking on too much, whether we are spending too much money on this, whether this is costing too much, whether all of this is too uncertain. We can only reply that our goal is to increase economic strength and social cohesion, and to export the integration of culture and peoples as a peace-building project. It is to extend what was realised internally in the old Europe to those countries that have been unable to benefit from it before now. All this cannot be achieved by signing a treaty, but must be fought and worked for – and we have to start somewhere. This also means having the courage to speak out in the face of all the scepticism and opposition and say that European integration is the right course to take in Eastern as well as Western Europe, because this integration brings peace, economic growth and greater scope for economic development in the internal market. Every country we welcome into the EU enriches our internal market. It creates social cohesion, and it helps Europe attain the proportions it needs as an economic area to withstand intercontinental competition in the long run.
On the whole, there are plenty of small things we could find fault with: such and such a thing has not been put right, more reform is needed here, administrative reform is needed there, judicial, police and agricultural reforms elsewhere. All of this is true and it all needs to be done, but this does not change the fact that Bulgaria and Romania should be welcomed among us, as we need them."@en1
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