Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, 15 January 2002 is an important day in the history of the European Parliament. We have elected a new President, and I should like, Mr President, to congratulate you most warmly on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party and . (Applause) I shall say something about the candidates in a moment, but I would ask the other groups to understand when I say that there have been many who doubted that it was possible to elect an MEP from a small country or the chairman of one of the smaller groups as President of the European Parliament. I should like to say to you, Mr President, and to everyone else too, that I am very grateful for the fact that the opportunity was given – and to our own group, too – to raise the profile of our European culture, and for the fact that a small political group and a small country also have the chance to take over one of the most important tasks in the European Union. (Applause) Europe would be a poor continent if the practice were only to give the responsible positions to people from the ‘larger’ countries. When everyone is given an opportunity and when a figure from Ireland, such as yourself, can become President of the European Parliament and our much-respected colleague, Mr Santer, from Luxembourg, can become President of the European Commission, then Europe is a continent that respects the dignity of all people and all Europeans. This, I believe, is the message today. We are giving new expression to the fact that Europe is not governed by the few, but that everyone has a voice, an influence and a portion of responsibility. In this task of yours, which you are now carrying out on behalf of the whole of the European Parliament, I wish you a lot of luck, Mr President, and much success when it comes to the common future of our ancient European continent that never ceases to renew itself. I should like briefly to acknowledge your fellow candidates, Mr Onesta, Mr Wurtz, Mr Bonde and, in particular too, Mr Martin. I well remember, Mr Martin, the discussion we had some years ago in Edinburgh, the capital of another small European nation, Scotland. That was many years ago and, at a time when I had no special responsibility here in Parliament, I became very aware then of the fact that it is a source of great enrichment, and also very necessary, that the groups in the European Parliament, despite their various political orientations, should be agreed and united on one goal, namely a peaceful and democratic future for our continent, based on the principle of liberty. I should therefore like, today too, to convey a sincere word of thanks and acknowledgement to all the candidates, in particular Mr Martin. (Applause) Allow me to say a final word. Mr President, this continent was divided. When many people, in both my own and other groups, were elected to this Parliament in 1979, no one would have dared to dream that, in a few years’ time, we should be able to welcome fellow MEPs from Central Europe here in the European Parliament. I should like to propose that, on the day that the accession agreements are signed with the first accession countries, we invite observers here to the European Parliament so that they might begin preparing these countries for the democratic elections to be held there in 2004. I wish you all the very best on behalf of our group. No one will mind my saying this today on behalf of the group of which I have the honour of being chairman, and I am also rather proud that we have kept our word. Trust too is important in politics. As I would also say to the other groups, our group will always be an ally of yours while the peaceful and democratic future of a strong and progressively more united Europe is at stake. I wish you much success in your work and God’s blessing upon it. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE