Mr President, I had the pleasure of taking a delegation of Members from my group, firstly on a visit last month to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and then last week to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo. We, the vast majority of my group at least, have returned with an even greater conviction that the European Union cannot exist without south-eastern Europe. In our view, the European Union must therefore provide itself with the economic, political and institutional resources necessary to implement a strategy that would allow us to include these peoples and nations, if they so wish. We believe that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement concluded between the European Union and the Republic of Macedonia plays a part, albeit a modest one, in achieving this. It was signed on 9 April 2001 and was ratified by Parliament just three weeks later, and in my view, this agreement represents a step forward for Macedonia, the region and the European Union. It is a step forward for Macedonia, since, in addition to the considerable funding provided by financial aid worth EUR 62 million since the beginning of this year and the opportunity to export its products to the fifteen countries of the EU, free from customs duties, the political significance of this agreement is a decisive factor. It symbolises a commitment given by the major Macedonian political forces, both Slav- and Albanian-speaking, to encourage political dialogue, without any acts of violence being committed between the various ethnic communities. This agreement encourages taking steps towards establishing equal rights and equal opportunities for all citizens and opens up the prospect of unification for a society that is threatened by instability, signs of which can be seen on a daily basis. This is a step forward for the region, which we should no longer call ‘the Balkans’, since this is a term widely rejected for its painful connotations. For the region, the fact that Macedonia was the first country to sign this type of agreement is an incentive to take inspiration from this model of inter-ethnic cooperation, which is imperfect, but nevertheless groundbreaking. We should remember that the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for the Economy, the Minister for Justice, the Minister for Labour and Social Policy, the Minister for Local Self-Government and many deputy ministers in Macedonia are Albanian. Finally, it is a step forward for the European Union itself, which has experienced so much difficulty in making a success of its common foreign policy, and the fact that the EU is able to play a truly constructive role in this important country should be seen as an encouraging sign. So, we must continue to make good progress. Other similar agreements must be signed in the same spirit with Croatia, Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania and the next step should be to accept their candidature for joining the European Union. Even if each country understands that the path leading from their application to actually joining is part of a process, the conditions for an active partnership already exist. My group, in any case, has decided to make a determined effort to achieve this.

Political group: GUE-NGL