Helmut Kuhne (PSE). – (DE) Mr President, Commissioner Rehn, you have a pleasingly straightforward way of presenting your findings in plenary. I will therefore be equally straightforward in expressing my thanks to you. Thank you, and that without any flowery words hiding qualifications. So an unqualified thank you.

You have worked carefully, you have made the best of an unsatisfactory situation that is not primarily of your making. It would be difficult to question your findings and hence the grounds for your conclusions on the basis of the facts.

I therefore advise those who may be tempted to feel offended in the present situation not to be, but to set to work and complete the tasks that are still outstanding.

If in the autumn your report shows there are still deficits, the Commission should propose safeguard clauses. Parliament should then give the Commission its backing, although each of the two countries should be treated separately.

For me, however, this debate is also an occasion to draw further conclusions, over and beyond the two countries at issue. Some other Members have touched on it, and I will say it again quite clearly: there must never again be accession treaties without the accession conditions being fulfilled in their entirety.

Bulgaria and Romania in any case complete the list of 27 countries that were in the Nice catalogue, so to speak. There can only be further accessions if the European Union also does its homework and makes the necessary internal reforms to ensure its continued existence with more than 27 states.