Mr President, I thank my colleagues in the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy for giving me another opportunity to work on Romania's accession to the European Union of Romania. At the moment, Romania has a unique opportunity, unequalled in modern times, to make very swift progress. For the first time in living history, it has a stable government, elected on a democratic mandate. It has clear political leadership, a greater understanding of the European Union's Community values and exceptionally good economic signals. The reform process is under way under the tutelage of the European Commission and with the efforts the Romanian administration has made on the acquis communautaire a larger number of chapters is under negotiation now than had been anticipated. If Romania continues to move ahead in this way and has the courage to undertake the painful political structural reforms, there is nothing to stop Romania joining the European Union without delay and it is pleasing to know that 79% of Romanians are enthusiastic about this prospect. The accession process is continuing. The number of chapters is increasing and I am pleased to announce that the Commission could receive all the position papers from the Ministry by Christmas, if it is able to do so. Certainly that is what the European Ministry for Integration in Romania is hoping for. President Iliescu announced in Gothenburg that he hoped and believed that all chapters could be fulfilled during his period of office. We in Parliament are dismayed and I am sure others must be too, that the visa restrictions have not yet been lifted. The Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs are meeting today and I sincerely hope that they will come to the conclusion that visa restrictions are no longer necessary for Romanian citizens. It is pleasing to note that the German Ambassador to Romania last week opened the new embassy by laying the foundation stone and saying that this embassy will have no visa section. The Romanian Government has decided to be judged by action and not by words. It has already done excellent foreign affairs work through Romania's chairmanship of the OSCE and made excellent progress in its relationships with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It might be dogged by poverty, but good things have happened; industrial productivity has gone up by 17% and inflation is coming down little by little. Romania's largest investor is still France, but other EU Member States such as Germany, Italy, Greece and the United Kingdom are coming in. It has at the same time been cementing its relationship with North America and particularly with the USA. But Romania's destiny remains in Europe and her future lies with NATO and the European Union. Perhaps Ceausescu's bitter legacy, however, was responsible for the fact that the political will for change was slower to emerge in Romania than in some other former Soviet Union candidate countries. Indeed, the treatment of children in Romania, as the Commissioner mentioned this morning, rapidly became a global media horror story. Today, however, Romania is in the process of change, helped all the way along the line by the Commission's faultless work in Brussels and Bucharest and guided by long-term friends here in Parliament right across the political spectrum. We are working as a team to assist Romania in her progress towards the European Union. As the Commissioner said on another occasion, the progress of integration is unstoppable. Romania is an integral part of that process and social change in the last few months has been rapid. Gay rights are now part of law, an anti-trafficking law has recently been passed and domestic violence law has gone through. A children's act, on children's rights, which will incorporate adoption law, both local and international, is now being prepared. The high-level group for Romanian children is moving towards registration. This will incorporate a wise persons' panel to assess Romania's capacity to come back into the inter-country adoption world when the time is right. It is imperative that the children's act is not hurried. Local adoptions have doubled in the last few months and 20 000 children are leaving special schools this week and will be going back into normal schools and normal life. That is tremendous progress. Here may I pay special tribute to my Spanish colleagues in the European Parliament, who have had many pressures on them from different families in Spain. I am delighted that the new Romanian Government has nominated very competent officials to review the problems that these Spanish families are facing. I will keep a very careful eye on this and report back to my Spanish colleagues. In conclusion, Romania has much to offer the European Union and the world. Its deep-rooted knowledge of its early European status in the Roman Empire gives it every encouragement to work through these difficult times and in due course become a full Member of the European Union.

Political group: ELDR