Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, if the citizens of Europe are looking for this kind of Europe, then Brussels, and especially the Commission, is where they will look. Being a parliamentarian, that does not please me, but I have to accept the situation, for the moment at least, and until further notice. But this also means that the Commission faces an immense challenge. If you want to bring about the great turning point you mentioned, Mr President of the Commission, then you had better make a start on this damn quickly. In the light of this responsibility, Mr President of the Commission, when you made your last speech here in this House, you proposed concentrating more heavily on core tasks. This could also be described in terms of carrying out or implementing the subsidiarity principle. However, at the same time, we must be clear about the fact that this must not amount to offloading tasks that are too complicated and difficult for the Commission. We must also be under no illusions, Mr President of the Commission, as to the fact that we must get straight down to work on these criteria and the core tasks I mentioned. We cannot wait for a White Paper, for the Commission already has far too much in the pipeline which might have to be looked at in this light, whilst other matters will have to be implemented more quickly and in a more comprehensible manner. What distinguishes us Social Democrats from other groups in this House is not so much the multitude of tasks and the number of proposals that are to come, as the direction they are heading in. We want to reinforce Europe’s role on the international stage in a clear and unequivocal manner, just as we want to increase its competitiveness. Above all, we must aim to make Europe more socially aware, to create a Europe of equal opportunities, and to increase security and quality of life within Europe. That said, we do not want to bureaucratise Europe and neither do we want to centralise it. That is not how we envisage Europe to be! If you make these your goals, Mr President of the Commission, then we will be behind you every step of the way. Moving onto another point: the Commission has passed a long list of its intentions to Parliament. We decided, in our wisdom, to draft a resolution which may not be quite as long but which provides you with a whole host of proposals and some counter-proposals. Exchanging lists in this way is not an ideal way to engage in dialogue. Therefore, in future, we should think of something different. I would ask you, Mr President of the Commission, to put an assessment of your successes and failures at the head of your next programme, and to comment on the extent to which you have actually achieved that which you set out to do, so that we can both engage in dialogue which is improved, constructive and ideally suited to the purpose. That would seem to me to make a lot more sense than the course of action we are taking this week – not for the first time, but hopefully the last! Mr President of the Commission, I would just like to pick up again on your expression “decisive year”. We must all make it our business to follow the debates on Europe in the various individual Member States, and not just in those we happen to come from. In fact, it is a constant source of alarm to me that so far we have failed in the course of this debate, to convince the general public of the need for this kind of Europe, and, in particular, we have failed to convey to them that the key to developing a global outlook is to make Europe strong, and this strong Europe must make provisions; not for everything, but certainly for matters that lend added value to Europe. It is not about preventing globalisation, we would not succeed there in any case. The only way forward is to form this global outlook on the basis of our own values and diversity. To this end, therefore, we must work together to bring about a significant improvement in communication, which is something you yourself mentioned. You are in the process of drafting a communication strategy for the enlargement of the European Union. But, Mr President of the Commission, we will not reach the real turning point until we manage to put our heads together on every single legislative proposal and work out how to convince the general public of the need for the proposal in question. If we do not manage to upgrade our channels of communication in this way then our common goal, to wit, a higher turnout at the next European elections, will not be within our sights. This would be a shame, not just for us MEPs – who may no longer be here in that case – but for Europe as well. (Applause)

Political group: PSE