61325 For a start, in cooperation with South Korea, we should accelerate the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's participation in the international community.
61326 Additionally, our joint effort to address environmental problems in Asia will be an important issue.
61327 Viewing this year as a new milestone instead of expecting the other party to do something for them, we hope that both nations in cooperation with one another will seek ideas and policies to define what they can do to contribute to the peace and stability of Asia and the world.
61328 After ten years of taking the reigns of the unification of Europe, Mr. Delors will resign from his post of President of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, in January and Prime Minister Santer of Luxembourg will succeed him as the new President.
61329 Mr. Delors has completed the integration of the internal market and put the Treaty of European Union into effect.
61330 The incoming President Santer will aim to complete the economic and monetary union as well as political union, advocated by the Maastricht Treaty, but the road ahead will be rocky for the new administration succeeding Mr. Delors, dubbed the "President of Europe," who has a strong personality and had pushed forward with unification.
61331 The economic and monetary union, which is the highlight of the Maastricht Treaty, is going nowhere.
61332 The European Monetary System (EMS), the foundation of the currency unification, broke down, and Britain and Italy have remained withdrawn from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) since the currency crisis in the fall of 1992.
61333 In the summer of 1993, they were forced to move to the de facto floating exchange rate system.
61334 On top of all that, the deep recession worked against the unification.
61335 According to the Maastricht Treaty, the member states in the monetary union must meet the given economic indicators including budget deficit, outstanding public debt, inflation rate, but among the EU member states only Luxembourg, with a population of 400,000, fulfills the conditions for joining the union.
61336 There has been some talk about the goal of issuing a single currency by the end of this century being "not feasible."
61337 Behind such pessimism, the idea of the two-stage unification is once again being discussed between Germany and Italy.
61338 This method will let Germany, France and the three Benelux countries, where the economic climate is good, to join first, followed by the remaining member states when conditions are met.
61339 Great Britain and Italy are strongly opposing this method since "it will lead to the breakup of Europe."