Toespraak commissaris Rehn over gewijzigde toetredingsregels (en)

SPEECH/06/663

Mr Olli Rehn

Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enlargement

Brussels, 8 November 2006

2006 is an important year for EU enlargement. We took a decision on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. We are conducting an important debate on enlargement strategy and integration capacity. And we face major political challenges, mainly in our relations with Turkey and Serbia.

Today we adopted a strategy for the EU's enlargement policy, which includes a special report on the Union's integration capacity. The current enlargement strategy - based on consolidation, conditionality and communication - must be combined with better ways and means to ensure the EU's capacity to integrate new members

This should form the basis for a renewed consensus on enlargement, which both underlines the strategic value of enlargement in extending the zone of peace, liberty and prosperity in Europe, and ensures the Union's capacity to function and gradually integrate new members. The pace of the accession process depends on the results of the reforms in a candidate country: quality is more important than speed.

Integration Capacity

The EU's integration capacity will be reviewed at all key stages of the accession process. We will also examine the budgetary impact on key policies, in particular on agricultural and cohesion policies.

The EU must also ensure that it can maintain and deepen its own development while pursuing its enlargement agenda. Institutional reform is needed to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making of an enlarged Union. A new institutional settlement should have been reached by the time the next new member is likely to be ready to join the Union.

We also need to further improve the quality of the accession process. Difficult issues, such as judicial reform and the fight against the corruption, must be addressed at an early stage of the negotiations. This is one of the lessons we have learnt from the fifth enlargement.

We need to ensure public support for enlargement. Maintaining rigour in the process and strict conditionality is essential to safeguard this support. So is confidence about the EU's integration capacity. We also need to communicate enlargement better. It is important to listen to citizens, address their concerns and tackle myths with facts.

Today we also analysed the progress achieved in the past year in each of the candidate and potential candidate countries.

Turkey

Let me start with Turkey. In the public debate, one may get the impression that Turkey is backtracking on the reforms. This is not the case. Turkey has continued political reforms, even though their pace has slowed down during last year.

Recently, the reform work has been re-launched, as the 9th reform package is being adopted in these weeks. It includes important pieces of legislation, such as creating an Ombudsman. Moreover, the Law on Religious Foundations is being voted in the Turkish Grand National Assembly at these very hours.

We state clearly in our report that further reforms are needed, in particular to ensure the freedom of expression. There is an open and intense debate going on in the Turkish civil society on the notorious article 301, calling for its amendment. Prime Minister Erdogan has invited civil society organisations to propose amendments to the Penal Code, which is a welcome initiative. We expect words to lead to deeds, soon.

Regarding Cyprus, Turkey has continued to actively support the efforts of the UN to reach a comprehensive settlement.

However, it has not fully implemented the Additional Protocol of the Ankara Agreement. Turkey is expected to ensure full implementation of the Ankara Protocol and remove obstacles to the free movement of goods, including restrictions of transport. Failure to implement its obligations will affect the overall progress in the negotiations.

The Finnish Presidency has made substantial diplomatic efforts to ensure that Turkey meets its obligations under the Protocol. The Commission fully supports these efforts to unblock the current stalemate.

I have called all EU member states and Turkey to focus all their energy to this effort, as it is the last opportunity to make serious progress for some years to come. Hence, we decided today that the Commission will make relevant recommendations ahead of the European Council in December, if Turkey has not fulfilled its obligations.

I am often asked what is the best strategy for the EU to deal with Turkey?

Simply, we should be both fair and firm.

We should be fair and keep our commitment to give Turkey the chance to show whether it can meet the accession criteria.

We should be firm and apply rigorous conditionality, which is the driver of reforms and modernisation towards a more European Turkey.

Croatia

Croatia made a good start in the accession negotiations. However, further efforts are needed, in particular as regards judiciary reform, fight against corruption and economic reform. The road towards EU accession goes really through substantial reforms - it will not be a walk in the park.

Western Balkans

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has continued to make progress over the past year - since the granting of candidate status a year ago - but at a slower pace.

Albania signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU this summer. Now she has to implement this agreement properly.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has made some progress on European standards. While talks on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement could be finalised rather soon, the conclusion of the negotiations will only be possible, once key priorities have been achieved.

Montenegro became independent this year, following a referendum in May. The Commission started separate Stabilisation and Association Agreement negotiations in September, but the new state has much to do to build up its institutional capacity to implement the Agreement properly.

In Serbia, there has been some encouraging developments: the separation from Montenegro was smooth, the macroeconomic situation has improved, and Serbia demonstrated considerable institutional capacity - showing that the country has the potential to catch up with the rest of the region on the EU road once it has met the ICTY condition.

Our report shows how important EU support will be in Kosovo after the status process. We will have to use all our instruments to the maximum to keep Kosovo stable and put it on the right track.

To conclude:

It is obvious that the EU accession process is no bullet train - no Eurostar, pas de TGV. It is rather like the Orient Express, a train which takes its time where the quality of the service and comfort comes first, before hurry. Yes, it is a slow, slow train coming, and not precisely up around the bend.

But it is indeed essential that the train remains on track, and thus enables us to maintain our soft power of democratic and economic transformation in our future home territory.