2018-12-14 16:55 update: 2018-12-16, 19:29
Fot. PAP/EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ
We need European integration to guarantee Europe's citizens freedom, security and prosperity; accepting Poland into the EU was not only economically beneficial but due to its history a 'moral imperative,' EU Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said on Friday.
Verheugen, who fulfilled the function of EU commissioner for enlargement in the years 1999-2004, was taking part in the 11th Warsaw Economic Hub. One of the panel discussions was devoted to the current condition of the EU.
Verheugen was asked among other things about whether the EU regretted accepting Poland in 2004. He replied that it absolutely does not regret enlargement and that the main point was that the community had established that European integration is indispensable as a continuation of the continent's history and as a conclusion drawn from that history.
In the official's opinion, one of the sources of conflicts that have broken out in Europe's past was the lack of appropriate knowledge, institutions and mutual trust among the countries of the continent.
European integration is needed to maintain peace, he asserted, but also to guarantee freedom, security and prosperity to Europe's citizens. Alone in the modern world, European countries are not in a position to guarantee those things to their citizens, according to Verheugen.
He also stated that accepting new countries into the EU is beneficial "strategically and economically." He added that in the case of Poland, the country's EU accession was a moral imperative due to its history. After war, after occupation, after everything that had happened in Poland, Verheugen declared, after the crimes of Germany which were committed on Polish territory, it was a matter of honesty. (PAP)
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