Utrecht, 20/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a speech he made in Utrecht on 19 June on the enlargement of the European Union, the High Representative for CFSP and EU Council Secretary General, Javier Solana said that, to ensure that the Council of Ministers "is able to operate in an enlarged Union",, certain practical issues can be solved "without treaty change". "I reported to Heads of Government at Gothenburg at the weekend on the issue. My impression since I took my current post is that the Council needs to do much more if it is to adapt to the needs of a much larger Union. As requested at Gothenburg, I will be preparing specific recommendations on these and other issues for the Laeken European Council", said Solana (see our special edition of 17 June on the Gothenburg Summit, point 17 of the Conclusions in which, under the heading "Modernising the Institutions", the Presidency states that the Secretary General "will present, preferably to the Laeken European Council, detailed suggestions" (…), so that the European Council "can take the necessary decisions by June 2002").
The former Spanish Foreign Minister noted that the current candidate countries "are undergoing the same hopes and disappointments which we in Spain experienced before 1986", and that, by their economic and political situation, "they are probably much closer to Spain and Portugal than to the three most recent Member States" (Austria, Finland and Sweden). "I can identify with their situation. I know that it is not necessarily an easy one", said Solana. Furthermore, he considered that "we have moved beyond the old argument of widening versus deepening", and he said he was convinced that enlargement would strengthen the EU, noting that "candidate countries already frequently support the positions and the policies of the Union without difficulty". At the same time, he considered that one challenge of enlargement would be the "new the new relationships" which will result from redrawing the borders of Europe, and, while saying that "its immediate neighbours to the South and East will remain the Union's foreign policy priorities", he stated that, once all candidates had joined, account would have to be taken of the fact that the EU would have new borders with Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. "As we enlarge, we shall be moving the centre of gravity of the Union to new areas of potential instability which will require greater involvement", Mr. Solana acknowledged. Then, saying he was certain of the advantages that enlargement would provide for countries like Russia and Ukraine, he cited "real problems" that could also arise for them, like the "future of Kaliningrad for Russia and the impact of Schengen border controls on Ukraine".