EU: As enlargement negotiations approach a conclusion, 200 members of national parliaments from countries seeking EU membership attended the European Parliament for an unprecedented Europe-wide debate yesterday. Most of those who spoke did so in their national language.
Welcoming the accession-state participants, the President of the Parliament and Independent MEP for Munster, Mr Pat Cox said: "I am deeply touched by your presence and by this moment, imbued as it is with the feeling that your time has come.
"Today we rehearse tomorrow's reality. As politicians we are challenged before history successfully to conclude this truly continental-scale act of reconciliation and healing."
The result of the Nice Treaty referendum had given real momentum to enlargement: "As an Irish European, I am very proud to remind you that, after a very active campaign, the Irish electorate gave an emphatic Yes to enlargement - and metaphorically removed the last brick from the Berlin Wall."
The Parliament wanted enlargement to take place in time for the new member-states to take part in the next European elections in 2004. "Together we can build a continent-wide EU that for the first time in millennia unites us through a Europe of common values, not at the point of a sword, not from the barrel of an ideological gun, but by the free will of free and sovereign peoples," Mr Cox said.
A member of the Estonian parliament, Ms Mari-Ann Kelam, recalled that one of her country's leading writers had said: "Let us remain Estonians but let us become Europeans." She said this double-identity was "the key to our future".
Estonia's identity, language and culture had been almost destroyed by the Communists and the Nazis before them. She herself had been born in a German refugee camp. "I am very pleased to be here," she added. The Baltic countries had "come home again" to a European Union where human rights were still valid. "We had to do without them for 40 years."
Dr Mihael Brejc of Slovenia said his country expected that joining the EU would open "new doors and new paths". Slovenia must be an equal partner and the Slovenian language must be used. "It is very important to remember that this is a two-way street not a one-way. We need the EU and the current member-states need us." Noting that many of the applicant countries were to hold referendums on EU membership, Mr Niall Andrews, Fianna Fáil MEP for Dublin, warned that proposals from the Convention on the Future of Europe were complicating the issue for these voters. The Convention "could be running us all into trouble", he said.
"It is going far too far ahead of the peoples of Europe." Mr Andrews claimed the pace of reform was too fast. "From an Irish perspective, any future EU treaty that supersedes or appears to supersede the Irish Constitution will be an extremely difficult, if not impossible, proposal to sell to the Irish people." Mr John Cushnahan, Fine Gael MEP for Munster, favoured extending EU membership to Turkey provided that country met the necessary criteria. "Turkey's accession would provide an important bridgehead between the West and the Islamic world," he said.
Before a date could be set for commencing negotiations, Turkey must give "further proof" that it was implementing its reform programme, such as releasing political prisoners, ending torture and respecting the rights of the Kurdish minority, Mr Cushnahan said.
A Polish conservative, Mr Janusz Wojciechowski, warned that people in his country were worried by the proposals to give reduced EU grants to their farmers. "In Poland this could lead to a No in the national referendum on accession," he said.