Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-03-09-Speech-3-528-000"
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"en.20160309.33.3-528-000"2
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"Mr President, I have been rapporteur and I am now both shadow rapporteur and parliamentary mediator for this country and I remain utterly committed to it joining the European Union and – on behalf of the Socialist and Democrats – I have been very happy to join with my ALDE and PPE colleagues to put aside our own party differences – to encourage the parties in Skopje to do the same.
But there is a grave political crisis where Europe’s commitment is not questioned but where the democratic commitment in the country very much is. So in our vote tomorrow we will send some very clear messages. As Mr Hahn has repeated this afternoon, the Commission has made the positive recommendation to start the EU accession talks contingent on full implementation of the Pržino inter-party agreement, which we helped to negotiate. The European Council has supported him in their December conclusions and tomorrow this Parliament will stand squarely with them and say, preserve your democracy or the positive recommendation is withdrawn.
After the latest set of talks in which we were involved last month, when the ruling VMRO Party claimed that we had agreed no further media reforms before the election and no further electoral assessments, as mediators and with clear statements from the EU and US Ambassadors, we put on record that these were not part of any agreement and the Dutch President-in-Office, I am grateful, has repeated that this afternoon.
The position of the Council and the Commission, to be fully supported by Parliament tomorrow, is that progress must continue to be made on urgent reforms and I note that the Commission has told us that there has been backsliding. I also note that the Special Prosecutor investigating the deep allegations of criminality against politicians has told us that she has not received the full cooperation which she needs from the country’s court system and in our vote tomorrow we reiterate that she must be given full powers and autonomy to undertake her work.
I and my Group will not join those who use the fact that this country is at the heart of the refugee crisis in order to attack it. We do insist on solidarity with Skopje to match the solidarity needed from all countries if there is to be an adequate response. But tonight we do send a very tough message. A tough message that politicians are not yet fulfilling their obligations and that there is no alternative to them doing so. A tough message: not against the Macedonian people, but for them, for their democracy and for a better future for their country. We are sure that is what they want and their politicians must demonstrate that they want it too."@en1
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