European Parliament
Libor Rouček (PSE ).
(CS)
Ladies and gentlemen, today is an important day for Europe. We have finally adopted the financial perspective for 2007-2013, which is also good news for the candidate countries and for countries of the Western Balkans. Those countries will now have a clearer idea of the resources available under the instrument for pre accession assistance (IPA). I warmly welcome the establishment of the IPA. I strongly believe that it will facilitate higher quality and more flexible individual policies during the pre-accession period, and will also make possible more cross-border and regional cooperation between countries that are preparing for accession and those already in the Union, something I consider very important. In common with previous speakers, however, I would have welcomed a greater involvement by Parliament in the formulation and creation of individual strategies and in areas such as decision-making on suspending assistance.

