BUDAPEST MEETING BUDAPEST, Feb 4(Hina) - Croatia has won the full support for its EU membership application at the 16th meeting of the European Parliament President and presidents of parliaments of countries which take part in the
European Union's enlargement process. The event took place in Budapest on Wednesday.
BUDAPEST, Feb 4(Hina) - Croatia has won the full support for its EU
membership application at the 16th meeting of the European Parliament
President and presidents of parliaments of countries which take part
in the European Union's enlargement process. The event took place in
Budapest on Wednesday.#L#
Expecting the European Commission's opinion this spring, participants
in the meeting welcomed and supported Croatia's application for EU
membership, recalling that this reflects the natural aspirations and
right of each country in south-eastern Europe, reads a joint
declaration adopted at the end of the Budapest meeting at which
representatives of south-eastern Europe were invited for the first
time.
The statement recalls that meetings of this kind began in 1995, and
since then inter-parliamentary ties between countries that applied for
EU membership and the European Parliament have been strengthened and
contributed much to the success of the enlargement process.
According to the document, the expansion of the EU set for 1 May this
year when ten new countries enter the Union is a historic achievement,
but this date does not mean the end of the enlargement process. The
process will go on.
The Budapest meeting pooled the heads of parliament of 10 countries
that join the Union on 1 May, three candidate countries as well as
heads of parliament of south-eastern European countries covered by the
SAp (Stabilisation and Association process).
Each country should be evaluated according to its own merits, the
declaration said.
The participants in the meeting voiced hope that Bulgaria and Romania
would wrap up negotiations with the Union by the end of this year so
that they could join the EU in 2007.
The Budapest meeting also revolved around the forthcoming elections
for the European Parliament in which citizens of 25 countries will
take part for the first time.
The participants in the event in the Hungarian capital welcomed the
suggestion of EP President Pat Cox to deepen both bilateral and
multilateral relations with parliaments of south-eastern European
countries and help them to be more efficient, as was done with
parliaments of central and eastern Europe in the early 1990s.
(Hina) ms