Mr President, this Spring Council will be dominated by the economic reform agenda and rightly so. Yet there is something a little strange in talking about the future of Europe when the draft constitution fashioned to facilitate that future languishes in Council. Liberal Democrats and Reformers in this House welcome the intensive consultations undertaken by the presidency. Signs from most national capitals suggest that it should not be beyond the wit of our Member States to deliver a deal. President-in-Office, we urge you not to give up on your efforts to break the deadlock at the IGC and secure a constitution for Europe before the elections to this House in June. I should also like to thank you, President-in-Office, for going off-script in your remarks. Your line that it is 'possible to find a consensus in the context of a process leading to a conclusion' is one of Sir Humphrey's finest. I am pleased to see that he is alive and well in Justus Lipsius. (Laughter) However, your line that the key to it all is political will is exactly right. The potential problems of an EU of 25 are painfully clear. Without institutional reform this Union cannot function effectively. It is time to stop pretending that life will somehow go on if the IGC fails. Forget the infamous Polish slogan 'Nice or death'. For an enlarged Europe, Nice is death. I share the Commission's concern about tinkering with the draft constitution. Some of Europe's leaders are playing poker with the Union's future in the last chance saloon. It is time to show our cards: governments, people, parliamentarians alike. Do we demand a stronger, more credible Europe at home and abroad? Do we insist on integration where it is needed? Do we want the President of the Commission to be Europe's best and brightest, able to command support across party lines? Liberal Democrats and Reformers are in no doubt about our answers to these questions: yes, yes and yes! I regret that the European left, which gave us the inspirational leadership of Jacques Delors, now seems to lack conviction about the future of our continent. Mr Poettering's platoon seems more concerned about making the next President of the Commission their political plaything than about the content of his or her programme. It is alright, Mr Poettering, for Wilfred Martens to claim that the is 'uncompromisingly pro-European': you look more like uncomfortably pro-European to me! Do you speak in the name of all of your Group, or just one part of it? The European Council also has to debate Europe's external relations. It should be recognised that without exception, Europe speaks more strongly in the world when it speaks with a single voice. That is why, President-in-Office, I make this appeal to you: last night, five of the nine British detainees at Guantanamo Bay were repatriated to the United Kingdom. Even as a British citizen, I see this less as a gain for Britain than as a loss for Europe. Because if the Council had pushed Europe's case over bilateral bargains, we might have had a more united and principled stand. We should have insisted on securing the release of all Europe's detainees from Guantanamo Bay. (Applause) I challenge your presidency to stand up for our Union's values by speaking for Europe as a whole at the EU-US summit on the issue of the remaining Guantanamo Bay detainees. We have to pull together now as a continent or we will fall apart. The pro-European forces in government and this House have to make their case with conviction, because we need a new constitution, a new credibility and a new self-confidence, and we need them now. (Applause)

Political group: ELDR