Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-01-Speech-4-044"
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"en.20070201.5.4-044"2
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"President Parvanov
Господин Президент, топло Ви приветствам в Европейския парламент!
I am greatly honoured to be able to welcome you to the European Parliament. Although this is not the first time you have visited this House, it is the first time you have done so as the President of a new Member State, and it is as such that I welcome you to our European family.
On behalf of the citizens of the European Union, whom we in this House represent, I wish once more to express my joy at your country’s accession to the European Union, and would also again like to highlight the historic significance of the enlargement of the European Union that occurred on 1 January this year. It took over sixty years for your country to be restored to a free Europe and for our continent to be reunited.
Bulgaria’s culture is an ancient one, and the country is situated at a crossing point between East and West. It is claimed to be the site of the oldest state in Europe, founded by Tsar Asparuch in 1681. Bulgaria is the country of Orpheus and Eurydice, the home of the Thracians and of Dionysus, yet there is such great longing for Europe expressed in the words of Elias Canetti, the Nobel prize winner for literature, who was born in Rustchuk in Bulgaria, and who wrote: ‘there, the rest of the world was called Europe, and when someone travelled up the Danube to Vienna, people said he gone to Europe, for that was where Europe began’.
This longing for Europe is combined, in the hearts of Bulgarians, with the profound awareness of having been at its heart since time immemorial. By telling the story of his childhood, Canetti sought to bring forward the reunification of Europe. Your country’s accession symbolises once more what Europe is in essence, the experience, made tangible in day-to-day life, of possessing a common soul, that European soul that disregards borders in giving meaning to the European project.
Your country, President Parvanov, brings with it a rich cultural and intellectual heritage, thereby contributing to the mutual enrichment of the European Union and of Bulgaria. Your country, and, above all, its people, deserve particular thanks for the great efforts made over recent years and for the willingness to undertake reforms. They have made great progress. Many reforms were accomplished in a relatively short period of time. These advances and triumphs deserve to be honoured today, but there is one thing I would like to add: it is that we hope, and are convinced, that the reforms that remain necessary will be implemented with the same determination.
Mr President, the European Parliament takes pride and rejoices in its eighteen new Bulgarian Members. I am also glad to be able to welcome the new Bulgarian Commissioner. We are also all looking forward to welcoming the Members that your country will be electing in its first elections to this Parliament in May. Together with the Bulgarians in the Commission and the Council, our new Members will be working on the further development of our European home.
Добре дошли на България и българския народ в Европейския съюз!"@en1
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