Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-187"
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"en.20000503.12.3-187"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Matikainen-Kallström’s report deserves our full support. She has guided this ‘child’ in difficult circumstances, for which I thank her. When we talk of transitional economies we might ask where these economies are really going. It seems that the direction is not always clear. Moldova imports all its raw materials from abroad and is very dependent on energy imports. One tenth of its GNP goes on a bill from just one Russian company, Gazprom, which – as the previous speaker said – is switching out the lights in the state of Moldova. There is therefore a stranglehold on energy that does not just affect Moldova but also its neighbour, Ukraine; and Belarus, too, for that matter. Consequently, this phenomenon has a broader political significance, which may create tension in this region, and which we will then have to attempt to relieve.
Moldova’s need for finance will be huge in the years to come. The Russian crisis on 17 August 1998 had an enormous effect on Moldova. It has become a ragamuffin state. The basic pension is just one fifth of the heating costs of one small flat. No nation can live and function like that. The balance of trade surplus is a massive 23 – 25%. As has been said, Russian troops are in the region of Trans-Dnestr, Lebed’s famous 14th army, not all of it, but nonetheless it has some influence.
We obviously support the loan decision and the line the report adopts, the macro-financial assistance, but this will not be enough. We are taking stability eastwards, so that we will not have to import instability from there. The next zone of enlargement, the following zone of candidate countries, will be the one we shall have to concentrate on. We have to create an area of special action, of which Moldova will be a part, and we have to help them. We therefore have to create an Eastern programme, to run alongside the current round of enlargement, which will help these countries – Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – at a stage when we are receiving new members, so that no new curtain falls between these states."@en1
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