Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-09-Speech-3-074"

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"Mr President, a warm welcome to our counterparts from Macedonia who are following this debate. Commissioner Rehn has said that we are encouraging Macedonia to move forward in the reform process. ‘Yes,’ we all say in unison, ‘we want negotiations to be opened this year.’ However, we still need to name names. The party who has put paid to Macedonia’s ability to enter into alliance commitments is Greece, with its veto against the country’s membership of NATO. There is admittedly a naming dispute, but we cannot ignore the fact that, in 1995, Greece made a binding statement, valid under international law, agreeing that the naming dispute would never be an obstacle to Macedonia joining the international community, the EU or NATO. Greece has broken this internationally binding agreement, and if we want to impose reforms in this regard, I say that Greece is in breach of European criteria and not Macedonia. This is a step backwards, it is a slap in the face of a small state that is really making every effort to go along with us and open negotiations. I would also say, therefore, Mr Swoboda, that the sleight of hand to stop, or postpone, tomorrow’s vote again further risks destabilising the government in Macedonia, encouraging as it does the nationalistic forces. The actual problem is that with Greece we have an allied country that refuses point blank to recognise any kind of minority in its own country. This is contrary to the Copenhagen criteria, which is embarrassing to the European Union and to the alliance. I wish Macedonia every strength as it takes the next few steps in spite of Greece."@en1

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