Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-19-Speech-3-092"

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"Mr President, honourable Members, as we all know, the European Union considers that economic and social cohesion between the regions is quintessential to life and has quantified this objective by setting a minimum cohesion target of 75% of the average per capita income of the 15 Member States. At the same time, and quite rightly too, our European Union has decided to integrate new Member States whose per capita income is demonstrably lower. Is it logical, is it ethical and, hence, is it acceptable in the final analysis for the second objective to be achieved at the expense of the first? By which I mean that enlargement will reduce the new average per capita income considerably. The upside, of course, is that at least everyone realises that cohesion policy cannot continue with blinkers on as regards the 75% target and hence various scenarios have been proposed and are being debated, scenarios which may provide a way out but which are not a fair solution. It therefore makes sense, it is obvious in my book, to retain the first objective even for the enlarged European Union. In other words, all Member States, old and new, must exceed 75% of the average per capita income of the present 15 Member States. That would be consistent. Naturally enlargement will need more money than it appears to have. So those who need to should take a realistic view of the new situation, they should approach it with an open mind, they should take a long-term view of the cost-benefit ratio of a revised, ambitious regional policy and they should not disappoint regions which continue to require help from Europe, from the Europe of their dreams, the Europe they believe in. We must realise, as did Demosthenes, one of the great figures of ancient Greece, when he said in ancient Greek, "... money, without it nothing we need to do can be done." And if the decisions have already been taken, well decisions are made to be revised."@en1

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