The Western Balkans present an "interesting and promising situation," newly-elected President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said when asked about the region’s prospects for joining the European Union.
 
"Countries queuing up to join is a symbol of our success," said Buzek, a conservative who is a former prime minister of Poland and who on July 14 2009 became the first Eastern European to be elected President of the EP.
 
Asked at a news conference for his views on EU enlargement, Buzek said: "criteria must be defined and adhered to. In my country it took 15 years.
"We in Solidarity (Poland’s pro-democracy movement founded during the communist era) felt a wind of freedom coming from the West. Then the great gesture of entering the EU…Your support was helpful but we had to meet the challenge".
 
He said that "one of my goals is for European citizens to understand how important European integration is for them". He said that "we cannot change Europe without its 500 million citizens".
  
On the make up of the current European Parliament, elected in June 2009, Buzek said that "if there are more eurosceptics in the EP then the message to us is that our message is not clear enough. We must reach out to people more."
  
He was asked by a French journalist about relations with Russia, as "Poland is most familiar with Russia".
 
"Relations between EU and Russia are very important, we are dealing with the same continent and its neighbourhood. The EU needs Russia and Russia needs the EU," Buzek said.
 
He emphasised differences of outlook: "Russian democracy - they claim their system is democratic - differs from ours. Also the rules of the economy are different than in the EU."
 
Finally he warned that "we must be aware of our differences, especially on human and civil rights- we cannot forget about this".
 
Buzek said that the Lisbon Treaty should be implemented as soon as possible.
 
"The people expect us to counteract the climate crisis, energy security, democratic crises; and have good relations with external partners, - without the treaty we do not have the instruments to deal with these issues".