The foremost political priority for the EPP-ED Group since the beginning of the parliamentary term has been the enlargement of the European Union to include the young democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. In October 2000, at the request of the EPP-ED Group, the European Parliament took a decision that the first candidate countries should participate in the European elections in 2004. This decision by the European Parliament was confirmed by the Heads of State or Government in Nice in December 2000 and again in Gothenburg in June 2001. The EPP-ED Group has thus succeeded in establishing a clear and rapid timetable for enlargement, a great success which must not be jeopardised by the result of the referendum in Ireland. The EPP-ED Group will therefore continue to call for the enlargement timetable to be observed. In 2001, the Group has also further consolidated its contacts with the accession countries in particular with sympathetic parties, by holding meetings of its Bureau in Nicosia (Cyprus) and Budapest (Hungary).

The EU summit in Nice in December 2000 was also dominated by enlargement. The reform of the treaties must establish the institutional
requirements for enlargement in order to ensure that an enlarged Union is still capable of action.The Treaty satisfies the formal requirements for enlargement, but in other respects has been heavily criticised by the EPP-ED Group. Criticism has been levelled at the structure of the reform process in particular, in the form of an intergovernmental conference which has ultimately proven to be outdated. The EPP-ED Group is therefore resolutely pursuing the objective of pushing ahead with the reform process without delay, adopting the form of a ‘Convention’ in which the Commission, the national governments also the national parliaments and the European Parliament are to participate. The referendum in Ireland has shown that the reform process can be a success only if the people of Europe are involved in the debate on the future.

After the highly successful re-election of José Maria Aznar and the Partido Popular in Spain in March 2000, Forza Italia under Silvio Berlusconi also recently achieved great electoral success in Italy in May 2001. The political landscape in the EU has thus begun to change and the EPP will once again have a greater number of allies in the Council of Ministers. We are confident that this political trend will also continue in the other Member States.

In 2001, at the insistence of the EPP-ED Group and the other major groups in the European Parliament, the drafting of a statute for European political parties was finally set in motion and is currently passing through the decision-making procedure between the Commission, Council and Parliament.The main aim of the proposal is to make the funding of the European parties, whose importance has already been enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty, more transparent and thus to meet the demands of the European Court of Auditors. The role of the European political parties in policy formation in Europe will therefore be recognised and further extended.We hope that this statute can
be adopted as soon as possible.

Enlargement and reform of the European Union are the two key issues for the future of Europe and they will also be the central themes for the work of the EPP-ED Group in the second half of this parliamentary term. The two are closely interconnected and the resolution of both issues will be of crucial importance to the security and prosperity of the European continent. As the European force of the centre, the EPP, following in the great tradition of the founding fathers Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman and Alcide De Gasperi, has clear plans for the future. Together with our friends in the parties in the different Member States of the Union, we intend to work to realise these plans with the citizens and for the citizens.To that end, in Brussels on 21 and 22 May 2001, the EPP-ED Group organised for the first time a joint conference bringing together the EPP-ED Group Presidency, the heads of the national delegations and the Chairmen of the EPP parliamentary groups in the national parliaments. The conference was attended by the EPP Chairman Wilfried Martens, Commission President Romano Prodi and Commissioners Michel Barnier, Loyola de Palacio and Viviane . The subjects discussed at that meeting were enlargement, the EU reform conference and the preparations for the EU summit in Gothenburg. In future, the conference of Group Chairmen is to meet twice each year to discuss topical issues relating to the development of European policy.

With this Yearbook, we are pleased to be able to give those citizens who are interested an insight into our political work in 2001.The EPP-ED Yearbook 2001 includes a CD-ROM which provides simple and rapid access not only to the Yearbook itself, but also to other EPP-ED publications.

Hans-Gert Poettering (EPP-ED, Germany)
Chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament