Gothenburg, 15/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - After the "enlarged summit" (open to candidate countries and organised by EPP party members), on 14 June in Gothenburg, the European People's Party (EPP) presided by Wilfried Martens published a declaration in which it affirms that, despite the "setback" of the Irish referendum on Nice, it "remains committed to rapid EU enlargement and to the goal of 2004 for accepting the next new members of the Union". The declaration also insists on pursuing the objectives set out in Lisbon, mainly by rejecting "those who continue to flirt with unworkable protectionist practices and/or issue populist slogans against globalisation". It calls on the Gothenburg Summit to "rectify" the "imbalance" existing between Member States of the EU which open their markets "while others keep some markets completely closed".
Speaking at his press conference, Mr Martens reaffirmed that the EPP has taken a stance in favour of a new method for revising treaties comprising the convening of a Convention similar to that which had drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights. He announced a declaration by the party on this subject before the Laeken Summit. The leader of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, Mr Svensson, said during the same press conference that he was a "bit confused" by the result of the Irish referendum, but that the result should provide encouragement to be more "humble" and to better explain Europe to citizens. Globalisation must be "an opportunity, not a threat", said the leader of the Swedish moderate party, Mr Lundgren on the same occasion. Mr Karamanlis, president of Nea Demokratia, the main Greek opposition party, raised the issue of the deteriorating situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, considering that "KFOR should do a better job".
Mr Martens also announced that the RPR president, Ms Alliott-Marie, called for her party to join the EPP (currently the European elected members of the "Rassemblement du Peuple Français" under Jacques Chirac are in the EPP-ED Group at the European Parliament, but the party does not belong to the EPP).
According to Ms Alliott-Marie, such an approach is justified above all by the fact that the elements that have so far ruled out accession to the European People's Party no longer exist (mainly a question of the disappearance from the statute of the EPP of the term: "United States of Europe").
The president of Forza Italia, and the new leader of the Italian government, Silvio Berlusconi, took part at the EPP summit. In answer to a journalist who asked whether Forza Italia can be considered a Christian Democrat party, Mr Martens replied: "to be honest, no, but it is a party that has emerged from the void caused by the implosion of the Democrazia cristiana", and which has accepted our statute. Silvio Berlusconi told the press he was "overcome" by the way the EPP welcomed his electoral success, considering that "this victory could extend to other countries where elections will soon be held, as in Germany", with a "domino effect in Europe".