Mr President, as this is a debate which deals with various topics, I would firstly like to say that I completely agree with all that Mr Watson said in relation to his report. It appears to me that Parliament is going to make a worthwhile contribution today in confronting a violent situation in the streets of Europe which is a worry to us all. With regard to the advances made in the area of freedom, security and justice, I would firstly like to congratulate the Commission on what they were able to achieve yesterday, especially with regard to the European arrest warrant, and I would also like to congratulate the Council for a very particular reason, for the sincerity of the report from the Belgian Presidency with regard to the progress made. Just as the Council does in its report, I would like to express my concern at the lack of progress made in the area of common asylum policy, and even more so in the area of common immigration policy. Not only is there no European policy but, as we have seen recently, there are quite a few governments who are developing their own new national policies, and, what is inexcusable in some cases, justifying these decisions citing Europe as the underlying cause. I hope that in Laeken we can make progress, however small, and make a new commitment in accordance with what the Commission said in its two communications on asylum and on immigration. On the other hand, I think that the agreement reached on the mutual recognition of judicial decisions, the so-called European arrest warrant, is very important. This seems to me to be a giant step forward, of course, in the fight against terrorism, but also in the fight against money laundering, in the fight against corruption, in the fight against human trafficking, including of women for sexual exploitation, and in the fight against organised crime. To me, this seems important, but it also seems that we should take some time to think and it is this that, thirdly, I would like to ask the Council: I think that in Laeken you should take into account not only the advances made in the agenda but also how these have been achieved and which problems must be dealt with. It seems to me that the unanimity and the lack of real power of this Parliament do not help. We are living in a world of paradoxes. A few days ago, in a manner of speaking, we said that Bin Laden had provided the impetus for implementing methods for fighting terrorism that the Commission had been planning and that Parliament had requested some time ago. Paradoxically, it was also the spectacle made by Mr Berlusconi’s government that brought the debate on the European arrest warrant onto the front page of the papers. I would sincerely have preferred for this debate to have taken place in Parliament, for there to have been a public debate and for you to have accepted it. I would like to tell you, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, that I am pleased that you appreciate the institutional loyalty of this Parliament. I would just like it if you could, in return for this, display a little more institutional loyalty in the analysis of our texts, in the inclusion of some of our positive ideas in your documents and I think that this would help in strengthening the positive nature of the Commission/Parliament/Council work cycle.

Political group: PSE