Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-11-Speech-3-359"
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"en.20070711.31.3-359"2
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".
Macedonia has been an official candidate for membership for the last 2 years, and has obvious European prospects. In spite of this, we still do not know when the accession negotiations will begin. We Liberals and Democrats would like to see the beginning of these negotiations as early as next year. But this depends largely on Macedonia.
Macedonia has made significant efforts in the past few years, and has achieved substantial results, but it still has a lot to do. Reforms are needed in the civil service, in the judiciary and in the police, and the fight against corruption also has to be intensified.
We note with regret that since the elections in June of last year, the reforms have lost momentum. We call upon our Macedonian friends to prepare for accession with renewed vigour. We consider important the full implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, because we would like to see negotiations started as soon as possible.
It is gratifying that the largest opposition party has returned to Parliament after a boycott of half a year. In a democracy, a democratic party must defend the interests of the voters in Parliament, which is why we applaud and celebrate their return.
We consider the question of the use of Macedonia’s constitutional name a bilateral matter. This unresolved matter must not be an obstacle to Macedonia’s accession, and at the same time we hope that with UN mediation the negotiations will lead before long to a satisfactory outcome for everyone. We would like to see a favourable outcome.
Finally, we welcome the successful conclusion of the talks about easing visa requirements. We consider it very important that after 1 January it will be much easier for Macedonian citizens to get to EU territory, but we consider this to be only the first step. Our main objective is that before long, in the foreseeable future, all Macedonians should be able to enter EU territory without a visa."@en1
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