Mr President, Madam President-in-Office, Commissioner, the enlargement of the European Union is certainly the most fascinating and most important project that we are working on. I fully agree with this. In this respect I believe that the future is certain, as you said; the timing may not be quite certain but it will happen and that is good, that is important. This should not, however, blind us to the fact that there are still a number of problems which need to be resolved in the process or that enlargement in itself will also create problems which we will need to overcome, and which must not be a reason to delay or abandon the process. One of these problem areas is, without a doubt, the social issue, which has already been mentioned by previous speakers, because the accession of the enlargement candidates will also make the gulf between rich and poor within the European Union wider. It is not because the rich are now becoming poorer but because these questions are being posed afresh in the Union; consequently cohesion policy will gain a new and even more important task. Where rich and poor meet, in particular in the border regions, this will of course also lead to problems because amongst the rich there are also pockets of poorer people and less qualified workers who feel threatened. Solutions need to be found here. I am very grateful to the Commission and the Council for identifying a reasonable standard which is to be applied flexibly and for as short a period as possible because the aim is integration. Integration means living together, not only living alongside each other but living together and growing together. This is an important task which we need to carry out together step by step. A second problem which I should like to touch on is the problem of minorities. Increasingly, of course, we are all living in a continent of minorities. The protection of minorities is an important task which we have not yet fully achieved in the existing Union either. Although it is legitimate to protect these minorities, we must, however, also endeavour to prepare the people to live in one united Europe and not create new privileges. I say this because I have been looking in particular at Hungary and the legislation there may run the risk of creating certain privileges for the Hungarians on the other side of the Hungarian border, that is in the neighbouring countries of Slovakia and Romania. I believe that we should be cautious here; protection of and solidarity with the Hungarian minorities yes, but no new discrimination. While I am on the subject of discrimination – and this is my final point – I should like to add that in quite a number of areas, and this is a major achievement of the work we have done together, discriminatory laws have been abolished and, for example, discrimination on grounds of religion, gender or sexual orientation has already been outlawed, including in Romania. The fact that this is still in the report means, at least according to my information, that it is already out of date because a law has been passed which abolishes discrimination against homosexuals. This just goes to show that everything is in flux and that our joint efforts have already improved the situation in Europe, even before enlargement. (Applause)

Political group: PSE