Parliament delivers landslide ‘Yes’ in historic accession vote

Date: 10/04/03

By Martin Banks

MEPS voted by a huge majority yesterday (9 April) to approve the accession of ten new countries to the EU - Europe's "rendezvous with history" as Pat Cox, the assembly's president, put it.

Parliament's formal ratification of the Accession Treaty means next Wednesday's signing ceremony in Athens can proceed as planned.

As Cox read out the results of MEPs' votes on each accession country, there was rapturous applause in the packed hemicycle in Strasbourg.

The Irishman was later joined by Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Tassos Giannitsis, representing the EU presidency, Elmar Brok, the foreign affairs committee chairman, and Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen in a ceremony to mark the historic vote.

A small number of MEPs, however, either voted against or abstained from supporting the accession of the ten prospective members. Several voiced anger that Poland had joined the US-led coalition in the war against Iraq.

The mini-rebellion was criticized by UK Socialist MEP Richard Corbett, who said: "Colleagues who link their vote on a historic development like enlargement to whether a country agrees with their own view on a current issue are showing unbelievable arrogance."

Earlier, the Parliament and Council of Ministers finally reached agreement in a row over the cost of enlargement which had threatened to delay the assembly's approval of the treaty.

Both institutions decided to increase funding for the new member states by €540million for the period up to 2006.

Verheugen described the vote in favour of enlargement as the most important taken by the Parliament for many years. He said it would be welcomed by the people in the accession states who "have shouldered the hard and far-reaching reforms needed to build modern western societies".

For the doubters, Verheugen had this message: "The integration we have achieved so far...has brought peace, reconciliation and prosperity such as we have never enjoyed before in any part of this continent."

In welcoming the ten prospective members, he urged Turkey to "stay on course" for EU membership and urged the Balkan states hoping to join to press on with reforms.

His one regret was that the chance for a political settlement in Cyprus had not been possible.

Cox described the overwhelming vote in favour of the treaty as a "defining" moment in "a very long process", adding that it was an opportunity "to put an end to a Europe fractured by a barbaric 20th century and to create a Europe united around common values".

Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the European People's Party group, hailed ratification of the treaty as the "most important" decision taken by the assembly since its first direct elections in 1979.

"Who would have thought back then that, in 2003, we would be taking such a decision?" he declared.

Socialist group leader Enrique Barón Crespo said: "This is not the end of a process but rather the beginning."

• The Strasbourg press corps, swelled by journalists from the prospective member states, were unable to follow part of yesterday's vote after a lightning two-hour strike over pensions rights by some of the assembly's civil servants, including translators and interpreters. Cox praised those staff who continued to work for their "professionalism".

MEPs voted by a huge majority on 9 April 2003 to approve the accession of ten new countries to the EU. The Accession Treaty will be signed in Athens on 17 April 2003.