Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-09-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20030409.3.3-048"2
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"Mr President, today is an historic day, as has already been said many times. The European Union is on the threshold of the biggest enlargement in its history, the fifth since European cooperation started in the 1950s. The European model of cooperation must therefore be successful. That was certainly the case when the Wall came down in 1989, when enthusiasm for accession in Eastern European countries was exceptionally great. Since then, this enthusiasm for the European issue seems to have diminished somewhat in Eastern European countries, although as far as that is concerned, those countries are looking increasingly like the members of the European Union themselves. As far as I am concerned, they are wholeheartedly welcome. I regard enlargement as a consolidation of the area of freedom and democracy, the common judicial area and the increase in prosperity that this brings with it.
I would like to say a few words about finance. As far as I am concerned, the Copenhagen agreements are acceptable. At least they were acceptable. It is particularly disappointing that the Council tried at the very last moment to undermine the democratic rights of this Parliament. It is also a bad thing because we have been setting high standards for the new Member States when it comes to democracy, and the Council chooses now of all times to try to undermine Parliament’s rights. Fortunately we have been able to reverse this. That has cost the Council money. I can only hope that the Council will take a more positive stance in future.
The real work, however, is about to begin. The administrative system in the new Member States is unlikely to be up to the task of efficiently managing the massive flows of money that they will be receiving. There is a lot of talk of corruption, although, it must be said, not only in the new Member States. All these shortcomings also exist in the old Member States. I think that we should take this opportunity to significantly improve administration right across the whole of the European Union. That means, for example – and we voted on this last month – setting up a European public prosecutor, reinforcing Eurojust and reinforcing Europol. We must do all we can to fight organised crime and, coupled with that, to put better controls in place at Europe's external borders. If we make rules, we must also have sanctions to reinforce these rules. As far as I am concerned, these sanctions are, at present, inadequate. Particularly with regard to flows of funds from Europe, the Commission should have much more power to tell a country in which things are going wrong – whether it is an old or a new Member State – that we will temporarily stop paying the money until we are satisfied that its administrative system has been put back on track. I hope that we are on the threshold of creating a Europe that is great and prosperous, and as far as Parliament is concerned, I think that it will cooperate fully in this."@en1
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