Enlargement was both an obligation and opportunity for the existing member-states of the EU, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, Mrs Lydie Polfer, said in Dublin yesterday. They had a duty to expand the European venture beyond its current frontiers and integrate their neighbours in the joint undertaking.
Mrs Polfer, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, said enlargement presented a "threefold opportunity" for the EU: "an opportunity for peace and stability; an opportunity for shared economic growth; an opportunity for renewal of the Union."
"Today it is more important than ever to concentrate on the long-term goals, to elaborate a European vision, to clearly identify what is best tackled at Union or national level. It is unnecessary to get bogged down in technicalities. We must not forget the essentially political and humanitarian nature of the European undertaking: creating a stable and prosperous Union for all its citizens."
Mrs Polfer was in Dublin for the state visit by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In a speech for the students of the Dublin European Institute of University College Dublin, she said the purpose of the founders of a united Europe was to devise a new way in which states could live together. "Europe without the EU is not imaginable any more for most people. The EU has become an inevitability in itself. This is both its greatest achievement and its greatest danger. Achievement, because nobody questions its existence and its contribution to peace and prosperity any more. Danger, because it carries the inherent risk of lingering on as it is, in its own obscure and sometimes complex way.
"Fighting this risk is one of the main duties of today's decision-makers. Didn't the outcome of the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty illustrate at least to some extent the lack of interest in what is going on at community level? Theirs was a cry for explanation, for in-depth discussion, for initiating a thought-process which has been neglected for too long.
"We have to explain that Nice was a success. The summit produced a result that is acceptable to all countries and, as I see it, an excellent result for the smaller countries, as we all managed to preserve our position."
Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa were given a civic reception at Dublin's Mansion House yesterday, where they were greeted by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Michael Mulcahy. Later they visited the Long Room Library of Trinity College Dublin for the opening of an exhibition.