The European Neighbourhood Policy: bringing our neighbours closer

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"Benita Ferrero-Waldner
European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy
The European Neighbourhood Policy: bringing our neighbours closer
“Giving the Neighbours a stake in the EU internal market”, 10th Euro-Mediterranean Economic Transition Conference
Brussels, 6 June 2006

“Giving the Neighbours a stake in the EU internal market”, 10th Euro-Mediterranean Economic Transition Conference
Brussels, 6 June 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me add my own welcome to you. Thank you all for coming here today.

As Rutger explained, although this conference is within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, we wanted to include all our neighbours in the discussion about the benefits of closer association with the EU’s internal market. So let me say how glad I am that all our neighbours, from both south and east, are here.

The core principle of the European Neighbourhood Policy is very simple – we want to extend the prosperity, stability, and security enjoyed by the EU’s members to our neighbours. Why? Because our neighbours are important to us. You are our closest partners and friends. We share practical interests, ideals, and aspirations, and we face common challenges like security, the environment, jobs and migration. We want a relationship which better reflects that.

The difference to the Barcelona Process is the help that’s on offer: we go much further than the Association Agreements in the kind of relationship we propose. Barcelona is an important multilateral forum for the Euro-mediterranean area, and will continue to be so. ENP complements this by strengthening our bilateral relations. It offers individual countries the opportunity to build a qualitatively better relationship with the EU. "