Mr President, I wish to begin by fully associating the Socialist Group with the remarks of Commissioner Verheugen in relation to Cyprus; no doubt my colleague Mr Poos will say more about that later. I have always argued that this enlargement is going to make or break the European Union. If we handle it well, it will greatly strengthen the Union. A recent report by the economists Ernst [amp] Young in the United Kingdom showed the benefits the United Kingdom would receive from enlargement. However, if it is handled badly, it will seriously damage the Union. Thus there is still a lot at stake in making sure that we get it right. That is why it is so crucial for the applicant countries to fully meet the standards required because, if they do not, we run the risk of having a backlash in public opinion not only in the 15 but also in the 10. We still need greater emphasis – as Mr Brok stated in the report – on implementation and enforcement. We must have proper transparency on state aid, competition policy and public procurement because, if enlargement is to work, the business community and trade unions have to be convinced that there will be fair play. We must not relax our drive against corruption. Corruption undermines economic progress. The EU country defined by Transparency International as being the least corrupt is Finland. The EU country with the most successful economy is Finland. The two things are closely related. The culture of the brown envelope passing between ministers and senior officials has no part to play in a modern, dynamic economy. However, the candidate countries also have to realise that by joining the European Union they are committing themselves to the standards of the European Union, such as democracy and human rights. That is why I was so horrified to see in Lithuania that the leading daily newspaper Respublika has been publishing crude anti-Semitic and homophobic articles, the first of which, on 20 February, contained a cartoon on the front page which is straight out of the Nazi propaganda of the 1930s. Such sentiments have no place in the European Union: racism and xenophobia are cancers that destroy our society. They have done so in the past and will do so again if we drop our guard. We completely condemn these articles. I regret the time it took for the Lithuanian media and authorities to take action and to respond. I hope the Council and the Commission also condemn those articles. We must recognise the difficulties that some applicant countries have faced and that they have made enormous progress in a very short period of time. That is why we have always had a very balanced approach and recognised the efforts that the candidate countries have made. That is why I regret the tone of the original Nicholson report on Romania. We have always said that each country should be judged on its merits and has to meet the standards or we will vote not to admit them. We have never said the negotiations should be suspended in the middle of a process. We know that there are serious problems Romania has to address. We know that past governments did not treat these negotiations seriously, but the current government does and it is making major efforts to catch up, as Baroness Nicholson herself has admitted. Thus our message should be to encourage Romania to intensify its efforts, not to try to pull the rug from underneath its feet at this crucial moment. I fear, given some of the misleading information in the original report, that party politics have more of a role to play than objectivity. (Mixed reactions) The new countries have a right to criticise the European Union. We have been very niggardly in relation to the free movement of labour. I am appalled at the dreadful populist campaign – which has often been racist – run by sections of the European press. I am even more appalled at certain politicians who have jumped on the bandwagon, including, I am ashamed to say, the British Conservative Party, which said it supported enlargement, has never raised this issue in the past and then started to dance to the tune of its tabloid masters. I hope that when reality – rather than mythology – rears it head after 1 May, Member States can start to ease these restrictions. I hope that on 1 May we will enter into a brave new world of solidarity and cooperation, not of recriminations and national tensions. We need these countries to work together on economic reform to boost jobs. We need these countries to work together with us to stop multinational crime. We need these countries to work with us to deal with the problem of people trafficking – the 21st century version of slavery. Together we can strengthen Europe. If we can do that, we will have a lot to celebrate. That is what we should be aiming for on 1 May. (Applause)

Political group: PSE