Strasbourg, 11/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - Opening the debate at the European Parliament on Tuesday on the State of the Union (covering the Commission's annual political strategy for 2004, work on the preparation of the next financial perspectives and the budgetary guidelines for next year (see EUROPE of 6 March, p.8)), Romano Prodi expressed his view that the EU's commitment to enlargement had not ended with the decisions reached in Copenhagen last December. The application for membership recently put forward by Croatia confirms that an entire region of Europe (the western Balkans) "is knocking at our door", he said, before stressing that "the unification of Europe that began with this wave of enlargements cannot be regarded as complete until the Balkan countries are members too". "The accession of the new Member States is only one stage in the process. A stage that must not obscure the fact that there is still much to do", such as finalising economic integration ("foster sustained growth, strengthen cohesion, step up environmental protection; reduce disparities and encourage all to adopt the euro"), and strengthening political dialogue, particularly in the current international context, he said. Mr Prodi felt that the possibility of war in Iraq "stirs the feelings of Europeans because reconciliation and peace lie at the very foundations of the European Union. It affects us Europeans all the more because chance would have it that four of our Member States and one candidate country are currently members of the UN Security Council". He went on to warn against two temptations: - building Europe in opposition to the United States: he believed that current differences "do not affect the ultimate objective of our policies or cast doubt on the solidity of our alliance, or indeed the whole web of transatlantic relations, our shared history and the extent of our bonds"; - focussing solely on the dissension within the Union: "we are all agreed on a great number of points", he said, such as wanting the UN to remain the cornerstone of world order, and believing that war "is not inevitable" and that Iraq must be made to face up to its responsibilities. After Maastricht, he pointed out, Europeans are obliged not only to reach common positions, but also to "give proof of loyalty and mutual solidarity. The Member States on the Security Council should co-ordinate their efforts and keep the others abreast of what is happening, while the permanent members should defend the positions and interests of the Union". Concluding on this theme; Mr Prodi stated that one of the few merits of the Iraq crisis was that it was "forcing us to talk honestly about the essential nature of our way of co-existing and doing things (…) solutions will only emerge from exchanges of views".
Mr Prodi went on to say that he was in favour of a period of five years for the next financial perspectives, to allow them to coincide with the European Parliament's mandate.
Central to the debate: enlargement, war, financial perspectives
Speaking for the EPP-ED group on the procedure for preparing the new financial perspectives, the UK Conservative James Elles declared that "prudence" was necessary.
The Commission, indeed, is planning to discuss a dossier "which could take us into 2013". He indicated that, like the Commission, his group was in favour of a five-year period for the financial framework post 2006.
As to the work of the European Convention, he said that he could see no reason why some people felt the EU could not function with 30 to 35 Commissioners. Johannes Swoboda (SPÖ), on behalf of the Socialist group, said that the United States' influence over the candidate countries proves that "the European project is not close enough to the citizens of these countries".
He accounts for the weakness of the enlargement strategy in the lack of consideration for the international dimension, such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
The Austrian social democrat also raised the question of the EU's strategy on visas for the Balkans, asking for the controls to be made more flexible, especially for scientists.
He also hoped that immigrants and and asylum seekers would be able to benefit from the right to hold a visa. Speaking on behalf of the Liberals, British national Nicholas Clegg found it absurd that there had been so much criticism in Europe against candidate counties in the context of the Iraq crisis, and regretted that the future Member States had been dealt with in such a condescending way. French national Gérard Caudron strongly criticised, on behalf of the GUE/NGL, the Commission's annual political strategy document. He lambasted its "naïve optimism" and felt that the proposals put forward were out of time. "Given the current mortal challenges, we speak of stability (…) quality of life and even registration taxes for cars", Mr Caudron noted unbelievingly, before calling on Mr Prodi to review his copy. On behalf of the Greens/EFA Group, Dutch Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg expressed doubt about the likelihood of reaching an agreement before the end of the year (Ed. It has been put off several times already) on the chemical products issue and felt, moreover (like the plenary), that the funds for financing political parties should come from the Commission budget.
Budget 2004: EP confirms priority will be given to integration of new Member States
- Financing of political parties should remain in Commission's hands
After its joint debate on the Union's annual political strategy and on budgetary guidelines for 2004, the EP adopted, on Tuesday, the reports by Jan Mulder (Dutch Liberal) and Neena Gill (British Labour member) on guidelines for the procedure for establishing the 2004 budget.
In particular, in the Mulder report, the EP lists a series of measures considered essential for successful integration of the new Member States. Thus, to achieve successful enlargement, it calls above all for aid to rural development to be stepped up and invites the Commission, acting in concert, to speed up the simplification and improvement process of budgetary execution of Structural Funds. According to the EP, this simplification exercise should also be engaged for other policies such as the research and technological development framework programme, trans-European networks, education and training, employment and other activities (SME and NGOs). The EP considers it is also necessary to launch a pilot project on the model of the Erasmus programme, for training and the exchange of national judges, and to create a network of public institutions responsible for training the judiciary in Member States.