Foreign Secretary praises EU Enlargement
In a speech to the Corporation of London yesterday evening, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised the objectives of European Union Enlargement, paid tribute to the generations of Europeans who have fought to make “‘Europe whole and free”.
Stressing the UK’s longstanding advocacy of EU Enlargement, Mr Straw suggested that May 1’s addition of ten new member states could benefit British GDP by as much as £2 billion per year. Indeed, he pointed out, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, UK trade with the accession countries – eight out of ten of which are former Soviet bloc states – has quadrupled.
However, the Foreign Secretary went on, enlargement on its own is not enough, and he went on to stress the pressing nature of European Union reform – starting with the Intergovernmental Conference in June, which is due to redraft the draft Constitutional Treaty.
Negotiations under the Italian Presidency broke down in December, when Poland and Spain refused to accept the terms on offer.
Mr Straw also praised the virtues of the East European member states.
He said, “Few people in Britain know that Estonia was the first country to hold Cabinet meetings on-line, and leads the world in e-government. Its neighbour, Latvia, has an enviable record on new company start-ups which holds lessons for us all – and I’m especially delighted that Her Excellency President Vike-Freiberga of Latvia is here this evening.
“Few know that we owe to Hungarian inventiveness everything from the biro pen to Vitamin C to colour television; or that the hub of the London Eye was built in the Czech Republic.”
He added, “The EU embodies Ernest Bevin’s definition of the aim of foreign policy – his wish to go to the station and ‘buy a ticket to anywhere I damn please’.”
