Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-13-Speech-3-069"
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"en.20061213.4.3-069"2
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"Mr President, I would like to say something about communication. I too object to the idea of enlargement as a foreign policy instrument, but my reasons for doing so differ from Mr Posselt’s; I do indeed believe that we have problems, for you can see for yourself how whole brigades of well-meaning global strategists, laden down with foreign policy instruments, scurry through Europe and beyond, proclaiming: ‘Worried about the threat of civil war? Join the EU!’ and see in all its clarity the reason why so many citizens of the EU say: ‘No thanks, I am not an instrument. I do not exist to solve foreign policy problems. That is not why I regard myself as a citizen of the EU; if that is what the European Union is about, I would rather not have anything to do with it.’
The second thing I want to say about communication is that it raises the question of what actual relation there is between the constant claim that we have to discharge the obligations into which we have entered, and our willingness to take a rigorous line with candidate countries both in the course of negotiations and in the run-up to them, in order to get these countries to make commitments and stick to them, when, in this debate – and congratulations to Mr Posselt – every conceivable back door is opened in the hope of getting one party or other’s favourite candidate into the EU before the Constitution has been adopted. The man and woman in the street is very well aware of the message that sends out, so there is no cause to talk about enlargement fatigue in an accusatory tone of voice.
Those who think the only problems have to do with matters of fact would do better to get stuck in to these communications problems."@en1
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