Europe's speakers descend on Riga

The 13th meeting between the chairman of the European Parliament, currently Pat Cox, and the parliamentary speakers from the European Union's candidate states took place in Riga on May 27-28.

Both Cox and the candidate countries' speakers pledged their strong support to the current EU enlargement process, which is scheduled to reach a climax with full membership in 2004.

All three Baltic countries are widely believed to be among the front-runners for EU acceptance, but there are still a handful of accession chapters still to be negotiated - including some of the thorniest such as agriculture and energy.

"We are worried most by the European Commission-proposed mechanisms for market regulation - milk and sugar quotas and an average or reference yield of grain," said Latvian Parliamentary Speaker Janis Straume.

"We have no intention of taking away from EU agriculturists their share of the market, but we cannot allow them to squeeze Latvian producers out of their own market."

Straume said Latvia was dissatisfied with what it sees as an unreasonably long transition period for direct subsidy payments and suggested that decisions about common agriculture policies and their costs after 2006 should be made jointly by current and future EU member states, because these decisions would affect the candidate states as well.

European Parliament Vice President David Martin urged restraint on the part of member and candidate countries alike, saying that the problems they both faced were "a challenge rather than a threat."

He added that he was sure all difficulties would be overcome through joint efforts.

"We have to understand that enlargement is a huge process of change both within the EU and in candidate states, and sometimes it may seem that not all the changes will be positive," said Martin.

Cox downplayed the effects that the political shift to the right currently underway in many EU countries would have on EU enlargement.

"I'm convinced there is a majority in the parliaments of member states to accept that we have a deeply historic responsibility before Europe to heal the wounds of the barbaric 20th century, and that this bigger vision will be a much larger part of the attitude of parliamentarians than some of the more mean-spirited capacity of the far right, which I do not believe will dominate the discussion on the enlargement ratification," said Cox.

In an address to the parliamentary speakers and Cox on the evening of May 27, Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga also voiced her opinion that EU enlargement would proceed as planned.

"The integration of Europe is a unique process that has no parallels in the history of human civilization," said Vike-Freiberga. "I am firmly convinced that we all - both the current and future member states of the European Union - shall benefit greatly from the EU's expansion. After more than half a century, a historical injustice that was inflicted upon Central and Eastern Europe will finally be redressed, and Europe as a continent will gain unprecedented stability."