Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-09-Speech-3-299"
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"en.20080709.32.3-299"2
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"On behalf of my Group may I echo and endorse what the Council President and the Commissioner have just said about events in Turkey. Secondly, I would like to thank the rapporteur for the way he has worked with us in preparing this debate and, thirdly, I would repeat on behalf of my Group that in our view – and the Council President said the same – enlargement has so far proved a success and is making a significant contribution to the development of a wider European Union.
We need to stress that fact right at the beginning of my speech, and Mr Brok's report makes the point too: we stand – as the Commissioner has said – by the promises made to Turkey and the countries of the Western Balkans in our discussion of enlargement strategy. So there is no change in strategy vis à vis those countries, but greater attention will be paid to the way in which the accession criteria are applied and managed during the negotiation process.
Secondly, we agree with the rapporteur that more attention needs to be paid to the Union's own capacity to absorb new members. On the one hand we are asking more of applicant countries during the preparation phase, but on the other hand the European Union clearly has to do rather more to manage the arrival of new members appropriately. And we think this means completing the necessary institutional reforms. The Treaty of Nice is not an adequate basis for successful further enlargement.
Thirdly, and to my mind most importantly: this report also looks beyond the current enlargement agenda to countries that are not on the list of potential applicants. Our existing European Neighbourhood Policy is not enough. That is true of our neighbours to the south, and the EU has put forward a proposal for a Mediterranean Union, but it is truer still of our neighbours to the east. We have reached the clear conclusion that the European Union must offer more, more than the Neighbourhood Policy. We think it has to encompass both relations between those countries and the Union and bilateral relations between the countries. The Black Sea would be a good geographic framework here, with a role for both Russia and Turkey. Without these two countries the main challenges and problems in that region will not be resolved. Turkey would have a pivotal role between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and this would give it the chance to show just how important Turkey is in Europe and how valuable it is to the European Union."@en1
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