Mr President, this is certainly not an easy time for the majority of the countries who are preparing to enter the European Union, especially Poland. Precisely now, at the most decisive moment when they should be making the final spurt towards the finishing line, when there is most need of enthusiasm and single-mindedness, the Poles, like many others, are starting to have second thoughts and to wonder whether the sacrifices required of them, the supposed costs of accession, will not outweigh the advantages, the potential and future gains. A certain alarming scepticism is becoming rife which is in danger of threatening consensus on accession to the Union. Commissioner Verheugen mentioned this phenomenon this morning, and this is why we have tabled an amendment which I hope will be adopted tomorrow, calling upon the Commission to increase its commitment to European Union information and promotion campaigns in order to convince the Poles that their presence in Europe is essential for both us and them. Factors which are certainly contributing to the scepticism of the Poles are a centre-right government which is about to come to the end of its term amongst difficulties and instability after a long period of clear, decisive action, and an economy which was the envy of the postcommunist world with consistently high growth rates of around 7 % per annum and which now, after the great dynamic progress of recent years, has started to show signs of slowing down. To these must be added the natural disasters which struck Poland this summer, floods and tornadoes which caused severe damage both in material terms and in terms of loss of human life. The left, the postcommunists, the current opposition – which will have the majority at the elections on 23 September, that is in a few days – are certainly not helping to calm things down and are tending to throw oil on the fire and present a picture of Poland which is not particularly reassuring so that they can then set themselves up as the saviours of the homeland. Of course, when this same left comes to power, it will not do anything at all to change the resolute, competent action taken by the Polish government to make every endeavour to enter Europe as soon as possible. There is no doubt that the left is committed to taking this path because all the Polish parties – both right and left – signed an explicit agreement a few days ago committing themselves to working together to this end. We must not ignore the fact that there are still issues which need resolving, and we have listed them in our resolution; to cite some examples: environmental protection, which was totally disregarded and abandoned during the long period of communist dictatorship with the result that the environment is now in a pitiful state; improving air and water quality to European Union standards requires huge effort and investment which would be impossible without external aid or those transition periods to which Mr Brok referred this morning. With regard to the environment, I would like to say to some of the Members, who are rightly sensitive to the argument and who have tabled amendments, that I support the amendments for the most part but that I have not accepted them because they are too specific and go into too much detail. Another well-known problem is agriculture, which is suffering the consequences of the Polish farmers’ heroic resistance to collectivisation under Soviet rule and is now extremely fragmented. For Poland, 26% of whose population lives in country areas, the restructuring of agriculture affects and involves many other sectors, starting with the need to create new jobs. A further issue is that of the borders to the east, which will become the Union’s borders with Ukraine and Belarus. These borders will have to be open, on the one hand, but also totally crime- and mafia-proof. Commissioner Verheugen talked about that as well this morning. To sum up, we are sure that Poland will enter Europe as soon as possible, in 2004, and we are pleased to note that the Belgian Presidency – as we heard this morning – wants to give fresh impetus and new dynamism to the negotiations. Poland – the President-in-Office said – will enter, although it is more appropriate to say ‘will return to’ Europe, for it has occupied its rightful place in Europe for centuries and only a perverse dictatorship was able to deny it its true place in history and geography for many decades. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE