Mr President, during the Copenhagen Summit, it was rightly stated that the political criteria are central to the assessment of whether a candidate country can be admitted to the Union. After all, the European Union is primarily an alliance of constitutional states. That is why we are devoting a great deal of attention to the establishment of democratic institutions in the candidate countries, something in which the Council of Europe too, with its own expertise, is involved in an extremely constructive manner. We appreciate the difficulties involved in heightening democratic awareness in countries which have for many decades suffered under totalitarian regimes which brought them to political, social and economic ruin. Fortunately, a great deal of progress is generally to be observed in this field. All the more painful were the recent reports that the present Romanian Government is trying to ban an opposition party by means of judicial tricks. We have had similar experiences in Slovakia under Mr Meciar, which led us to suspend the accession process with that country. The question I should like to ask the Commissioner is the following: is it not time we also indicated to the Romanian Government that this type of suspension will ensue if it continues to take measures which contravene the rule of law? This illustrates that independent jurisdiction is particularly beneficial, as is the extent to which the police enforces the rule of law. The fight against corruption is being tackled bravely in many countries, and I should like to quote Bulgaria in this connection. Indeed, strengthening society’s legal infrastructure is extremely beneficial. However, the concern for the integrity of civil servants, judges, police and administrators is often in stark contrast to the paltry salaries they receive, and I believe that this too should remain an area of attention during the accession process. European integration is multifaceted and embraces all levels of society. That is why the exchange programmes and town twinning associations have a practical value, as well as the use of specialist EU institutions, such as the European Drugs Monitoring Centre and the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia in Vienna. A concept which, by the way, since Durban, has had all kinds of unpleasant connotations. That Centre too could play a role in integration and in solving problems in the candidate countries. My question to the Commissioner is: are these specialist centres involved in the integration of the candidate countries and do they have sufficient capacity? Moreover, I share the Commissioner’s view that, where minorities and non-discrimination are concerned, the social integration of the Roma population – not just in Slovakia or Romania, but in Europe as a whole – is a very difficult task which requires an explicitly European approach. Mr Wiersma made his views known on this subject earlier. I share the Commissioner’s hope that the division in Cyprus will be resolved soon. If the Cypriot Government continues to do what it can in order to restore unity, the division will not be so much of an obstacle to the Government as it will be in the negotiations with Turkey. And I hope that Turkey takes proper note of this.

Political group: PPE-DE