Estonian president: It's time to drop term "new members" 
11.03.2008
STRASBOURG, Mar 11, BNS - Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves suggested in his address to the European Parliament today that it is time to discard the term "new members" of the European Union.
"Today, as Estonia is about to enter its fifth year as a member of our Union, we no longer are 'new members' learning the ropes," the president said. "Indeed, I believe it is time now to put aside the term 'new member' as an anachronism with no heuristic value."
In Ilves' words, there are no new or old members today, there are only members.
"The term 'new member' does not even mean poorer these days as a number of us now have caught up with 'old members'," he noted.
There are today within the EU coalitions of interests, of party positions, and these form on any number of dimensions but not on time or length of membership, Ilves said.
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8849, sise@bns.ee
 
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