3. Latvia
A5-0239/2000
European Parliament resolution on Latvia’s application for membership of the European Union
andthe state of the negotiations (COM(1999) 506 8dash C5-0029/2000 8dash 1997/2176(COS))
The European Parliament,
kdash havingregardtoLatvia’sapplicationformembershipoftheEuropeanUnion,submittedon27October
1995, pursuant to Article 49 of the TEU,
kdash having regard to the opinion of the Commission on this application (COM(1997) 2005 kdash C4-0377/
1997),
kdash having regard tothe1999Regular Report onLatvia’sprogresstowardsaccession(COM(1999)506kdash
C5-0029/2000) and to the 1999 CompositePaper of the Commission(COM(1999) 500 kdash C5-0341/
2000),
kdash having regard to the decisions taken by the European Council, notably in Copenhagen (21/22 June
1993), Luxembourg (12/13 December 1997) and Helsinki (10/11 December 1999),
kdash havingregardtotheEurope Agreement betweentheEuropeanCommunitiesandtheirMemberStates,
of the one part, and Latvia, of the other part,
kdash having regard to the 1999 Accession Partnership for Latvia,kdash having regard to its resolution of 3 December 1998 on Latvia’s application for accession to the Eur-
opean Union with a view to the Vienna European Council (11/12 December 1998)(
1),
kdash having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,
kdash having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security
and Defence Policy (A5-0239/2000),
A. whereas accession negotiations have been opened between the European Union and Latvia as a result
of the decision taken by the Helsinki European Council in December 1999, and five of the eightchapters of negotiations opened have already been provisionally closed (education and training,
research, SMEs, statistics and CFSP),
B. noting the significant progress towards a social market economy that Latvia has made, although
income inequality and poverty have considerably increased, especially in rural areas,
C. whereas Latvia has considerably improved the general legislative context for the naturalisation, and
hence political and social integration, of non-citizens,
D. noting that Latvia has achieved significant progress in the transposition of the acquis, but that imple-
mentation has been hampered by delays in the reform of public administration, the civil service anddecentralised administrative structures,
E. whereas the European Union’s PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD pre-accession instruments are intended to
make a substantial contribution as regards the adoption and implementation of the acquis communau-
tairein the candidate countries and periodic monitoring of their effectiveness in these areas is there-
fore necessary,
F. noting that in the pre-accession phase, particular attention needs to be paid to the development of
rural areas, not only for economic reasons, but equally for their social, cultural and environmental
importance,
G. pointingoutthat,althoughtheyrepresentanimprovement,Latvia’snewprovisionsonasylumarenot
fully in line with the acquis; concerned also by the unacceptable conditions prevailing in some deten-
tion centres where immigrants without the appropriate legal documents are detained,
(1) OJ C 398, 21.12.1998, p. 48.22.6.2001 EN C 178/133 Official Journal of the European Communities
Wednesday 4 October 2000
1. Welcomes the opening of negotiations on EU membership with Latvia and calls on all parties con-
cerned to conduct these negotiations in such a way as to allow Latvia to participate in the first enlarge-ment wave, provided that Latvia can demonstrate equivalent progress in adopting and implementing the
acquis;
2. Underlines the need for an appropriate regulatory framework and policies to improve social and
economic cohesion; calls in this connection for increased support for employment creation measures,
social dialogue and the fight against poverty in the framework of the pre-accession strategy;
3. Considersthat proper representation ofthe social partners andsocial dialogue are indispensable pre-
conditions for socially balanced growth and the implementation of the acquisin the fields of social policy,
labour law and working conditions; calls for the position of the social partners and NGOs to be strength-ened through the establishment of consultation and participation mechanisms for social and economicpolicy programmes and projects;
4. Welcomes the fact that Latvia has amended the citizenship law, adopted a new language law and
launched a programme for the integration of Latvian society; considers that the legal provisions shouldnow be implemented in such a way as to create a positive climate and that a campaign to encourage
non-citizens to apply for citizenship should be launched;
5. Welcomes the fact that Latvia has decided to abandon the practice of indicating in residents’ pass-
ports and identity documents the ethnic group to which they belong and instead to introduce a newsystem for identity documents in which only citizenship is indicated;
6. Advocatesthatthesimplifiedprocedure fordealingwithresidentsoffrontierregions beretained and
improved;
7. Considers that the strengthening of the public administration at the central as well as local and
regionallevelisofutmostimportanceforLatvia’scapabilitytoimplementthe acquisinaverifiablemanner;
encourages Latvia to draw up a clear legal basis for the civil service and to speed up the process of regio-nal reform;
8. Observes that in some cases laws and regulations need to be implemented more consistently; inves-
tors, in particular, expect a clear legislative framework and, where necessary, its comprehensive and
prompt implementation;
9. Considers in this connection that, as part of the pre-accession aid, provision should be made to
ensure flexible use of the twinning instrument, including short-term assignments, so as to support, also,the regional authorities’ capability to implement the acquis;
10. Underlines the fact that support for agriculture and rural development must focus on the multiple
functions ofrural economies and the appropriate use of human and natural potential in each region, thus
integrating aspects of employment, social services, environment protection, biodiversity and food quality;
rural developmentprogrammes shouldfocusonaddedvalue through processing andmarketing onalocaland regional level instead of giving priority to export of agricultural raw materials;
11. Emphasises that integrated rural development measures in the framework of Sapard should cover
the rural areas in their entirety soas to avoid further marginalisation of disadvantaged rural areas; consid-
ers that pilot projects such as the Latgale development region should be used to mobilise cooperation
between all rural actors and to enhance a participatory process of rural development;
12. Calls upon the Commission to review the ISPAprogramme with regard to its contribution to the
transpositionoftheenvironmental acquis;calls,further,upontheLatvianauthoritiestospeedupthetrans-
positionofthosesectorsofthe environmental acquiswhich strengthen the democratic rights ofitscitizens
and nature protection;C 178/134 EN22.6.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Wednesday 4 October 2000
13. Notes that the current ISPA(Transport) priorities disregard fundamental aspects of the country’s
economic development potential, such as its Baltic Sea ports and their links to the hinterland, but thatthe development of the ports as part of a coordinated approach in the context of Baltic Sea cooperation
could be of great importance for Latvia;
14. Stresseswithregard toasylumpolicythatthecompetence oftheRefugees AppealsCouncilandthe
quality ofitsprocedure anddecisionsmustbeimproved,thataccesstolegal assistanceaswellastherightto appeal against detention must be guaranteed and that complementary forms of protection and familyreunification procedures have to be established; calls for a revision of the lists of safe third countries and
safe countries of origin;
15. Calls, also, for improved treatment of persons whose requests for refugee status have been turned
down and for humane treatment of immigrants without the appropriate legal documents; calls on the EUtoincrease itssupporttoLatviainthisconnectioninordertoclearthewayforthecountry’sparticipation
in a humane European immigration and asylum policy;
16. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council, the parlia-
ments of the Member States and the Government and Parliament of Latvia.
4. Lithuania
A5-0240/2000
European Parliament resolution on Lithuania’s application for membership of the European Union
andthe state of negotiations (COM(1999) 507 8dash C5-0030/2000 8dash 1997/2178(COS))
The European Parliament,
kdash having regard to Lithuania’s application for membership of the European Union, submitted on
8 December 1995, pursuant to Article 49 of the TEU,
kdash having regard to the opinion of the Commission on this application (COM(1997) 2007 kdash C4-0379/
97),
kdash havingregardtothe1999RegularReportonLithuania’sprogresstowardsaccession(COM(1999)507
kdash C5-0030/2000) and to the 1999 Composite Paper of the Commission (COM(1999) 500 kdashC5-0341/2000),
kdash having regard to the decisions taken by the European Council, notably in Copenhagen (21/22 June
1993), Luxembourg (12/13 December 1997) and Helsinki (10/11 December 1999),
kdash havingregardtotheEurope Agreement betweentheEuropeanCommunitiesandtheirMemberStates,
of the one part, and Lithuania of the other part,
kdash having regard to the 1999 Accession Partnership for Lithuania,kdash having regard toitsresolutionof3 December 1998onLithuania’s application formembership ofthe
European Union, with a view to the European Council to be held in Vienna on 11/12 December1998(
1),
kdash having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,kdash having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security
and Defence Policy (A5-0240/2000),
A. whereasLithuaniahasawell-developeddemocraticsystemofgovernmentandminorityrightsarewell
protected,
B. whereas the reform of the judiciary is well advanced, but stronger measures are required to improve
the performance of the police, improve prison conditions and develop a more comprehensiveapproach to crime prevention,
(1) OJ C 398, 21.12.1998, p. 54.22.6.2001 EN C 178/135 Official Journal of the European Communities
Wednesday 4 October 2000