Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-14-Speech-3-307"
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"en.20071114.33.3-307"2
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"Mr President, the question is whether developments in Georgia show that the neighbourhood policy has failed. I believe that is not the case. They show that there may still be a need to raise the profile of the neighbourhood policy, for much of what has happened there was foreseeable. The fact is that the successes and the credit side of the Rose Revolution in Georgia have been tarnished in recent months and years by a good few authoritarian decisions which have encroached on the powers of the judiciary.
Compounded by the social situation, this has resulted in the recent unrest, and I hope we are now strong enough to ensure, together with President Saakashvili, that a dialogue is initiated and that transparent and free elections are conducted with genuine freedom of expression, resulting in truly democratic choices.
A second reason why the neighbourhood policy needs to be strengthened is undoubtedly this whole discussion regarding further enlargement. Our intention is now to discuss enlargement to the south-east, to negotiate with the countries of south-eastern Europe and Turkey and to bring the process to a conclusion. This is not the time to anticipate subsequent rounds of enlargement, but rather to strengthen relations with our neighbours, and some of those neighbouring countries, in so far as they are situated in Europe, will have the chance to join the European Union at a later date, though some will not. This strong link, however, must exist.
The third reason has already been mentioned. I believe that such abstruse ideas, if you will pardon the expression, as a Mediterranean Union that would draw a line right across the European Union, a Mediterranean Union in which, as President Sarkozy suggested yesterday to the Conference of Presidents, the other Member States of the EU could have observer status, should and must be prevented, to which end we must have a common neighbourhood policy and work together to strengthen relations.
It is legitimate to envisage an EU-Black Sea community and an EU-Mediterranean community, but it will always be the task of the European Union as a whole to maintain and strengthen relations with these neighbours, a task which also involves supporting the efforts of the Commission."@en1
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