Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-13-Speech-3-024"
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"en.20020313.2.3-024"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Commissioner, in this debate on enlargement I should like to emphasise an aspect which is not part of the negotiations as such, but which will be very significant for the success of the new accessions. I wish to talk about the statements which are made from time to time – and too often for my liking – by the leaders of candidate countries, political declarations which emphasise the bilateral conflicts between neighbouring countries in Central Europe, countries which today aspire to join the European Union.
For example, I am thinking of a subject which you yourself addressed, Commissioner: the recent virulent comments made by the Hungarian Prime Minister on the Bene Decrees, which were followed by the sharp riposte of the Slovak Prime Minister, his Czech counterpart and the President of the Czech Parliament. The result of this controversy was the postponement of the Višegrad summit, during which four countries – Poland, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak Republics – had intended to coordinate their positions for the final phase of the negotiations, which would have been extremely useful.
I am not going to express an opinion here on the Beneš issue itself. In any case, you have already done so, Commissioner, and very well too. For my part, however, I deeply regret the climate of mutual mistrust of which this controversy is symptomatic. Similarly, the persistence of the excessively nationalist leanings of certain leaders and the general public in the candidate countries is something which we can only contemplate with fear. Of course we can understand their terrific thirst for freedom and independence after so many years of oppression. Having become well acquainted with these countries myself just after the fall of communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union, I think that I am quite well placed to know and understand how the people there are feeling and why they are reacting in this way. But, for pity's sake, accession to the European Union does not require them to forget the past, but to be able to transcend it. I have often regretted the fact that the accession negotiations are based solely on the Copenhagen criteria, that is, on criteria which are objective, admittedly, but which are essentially materialist. Psychological political criteria – states of mind, attitudes, private reservations – which are obviously difficult to measure, hardly play any part at all, as you have often reminded us, Commissioner. However – and I say this in a spirit of friendship and out of the high regard that I have for the candidate countries – their accession to the Union, which we are hoping, preparing and waiting for, has to take place in a climate of confidence, with the very strong desire to live together, and not in a climate of distrust and even suspicion."@en1
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