The "freshmen" take the floor” “

The special session of the European Parliament dedicated to enlargement was held in Strasbourg from 18 to 20 November, in the presence of 199 MPs from the candidate countries and with conspicuous absences among the ranks of MEPs. Turkey was not present, because, for reasons of time, it was unable to appoint twelve representatives from its newly elected National Assembly. “European compatriots”. The debate of the “enlarged session” of the European Parliament was opened with an address by the President of the EP, Pat Cox, who welcomed “the European compatriots” present in the debating chamber and recalled the “peaceful and voluntary” character of European construction and the importance of Parliaments as an indispensable democratic link with and between the European peoples. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish premier and current President of the Council, expressed his satisfaction about the debate on enlargement, an “epochal” event – he said – that his government has always considered the “priority of priorities”. Rasmussen recalled the still outstanding questions which will need to be resolved in the next three weeks before the European Council in Copenhagen (12 and 13 December): in the first place, the fact that after the December summit and on the conclusion of all the negotiations, there’ll no longer be any opportunity for further requests by candidate countries; that includes Cyprus, on whose reunification negotiations are now being held on the basis of a UN proposal; future EU enlargement to Bulgaria and Romania unofficially scheduled for 2007; and lastly the question of Turkey, now unanimously defined as a “candidate”, and not just as an “eligible”, country. With regard to Turkey, the Danish premier reaffirmed the need to respect the political criteria before initiating membership negotiations. Just like the “first day at school”. President of the European Commission Romano Prodi compared the special session to the “first day at school”, disorganized but happy, and described enlargement as a “masterpiece” of Europe which is henceforth called to assume greater international responsibilities, especially in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean Basin. “Peace, democracy, prosperity and solidarity”: these, in Prodi’s view, are what the peoples of central and eastern Europe expect from the European Union. After the interventions of the representatives of the political groups (all 199 parliamentarians of the candidate countries present at Strasbourg participated in the meetings of the political groups on 18 November) and of the leaders of the national delegations, the debate entered into the heart of the question with the speeches of the representatives of the candidate countries. Jozef Olesky, from Poland, spoke of the “irreversibility” of the process of enlargement, stressing that the candidate countries expect “stability and solidarity” from a 27-member Europe. Other parliamentarians, including the President of the Czech Parliament Lubomir Zaoralek, the Hungarian Bela Katona and the Slovak Jan Fidel expressed their confidence that the last hurdles on the road to membership, i.e. the agricultural and financial questions, would be overcome, and stressed the legitimacy of the candidates’ requests. Several representatives urged the EU for equal treatment for the candidate countries that “share the same values of justice and law” ( Roman Jakic, Slovene MP). Particularly applauded was the affirmation of the Pole Janusz Wojciechowski: “enlargement – he said – is a bilateral process: the candidate countries will join the EU, and the EU will join the candidate countries”. The language problem. In conclusion, Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that the Copenhagen summit will be able to take the final decisions, and confirmed 1st May 2004 as the official date for EU membership. The Commissioner for enlargement Günter Verheugen emphasized, in turn, that, “now that the technocratic work has been completed, it’s up to the national parliaments of the candidate countries to convince their own citizens to support the European project”. At the end of the debate, the president of the EP Pat Cox pointed out that out of a total of 61 interventions, 44 has been made by representatives of the candidate countries. Cox also thanked the interpreters which had made possible a session in which 23 languages and 506 different language combinations had been used. G.A.G.