Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, it is no cliché to say that, on the eve of the European Council in Feira, this is a decisive moment for the European Union. The proof of this is the fact that in recent months there have been an increasing number of declarations, beginning with Heads of State such as President Campi of Italy, President Rau of Germany, prominent European politicians such as Helmut Schmidt, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Delors and more recently, with great success, the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Fischer, all of whom have related the debate on the Intergovernmental Conference with a debate which is of importance to all of us, that is, ‘where is Europe heading?’. I think that this is healthy given that we are on the threshold of the greatest and most ambitious enlargement the European Union has ever known. This debate reflects the political will of the Group of the , and also Parliament as a whole, who wish to achieve an ambitious agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference. Since we have been talking about photographic technology, to use a cinematic analogy, I would say that we need to be involved in the writing of the script, we need a good ending, and we MEPs must not be cast as extras, but as lead actors. With regard to the Intergovernmental Conference, it is important that President Herzog appears before the European Council in Feira. I would like to point out that, when we talk about the community of values, – and there have been recent opportunities to do so, such as the formation of the new Austrian Government – we must demand that the Charter of Fundamental Rights be clearly included in the Treaty in order to fulfil the purpose of Articles 6 and 7 of that Treaty. Furthermore, although the Treaty of the European Union recognises European citizenship, until now, economic and social, individual and collective rights have not been developed. It is completely contradictory to have citizenship without rights. It is therefore absolutely essential that the Charter of Fundamental Rights be incorporated into the Treaty. In this process, the status of political parties is a means for them also to be protagonists on the European stage. With regard to the convention, I would add one more element, and that is that, in the drawing up of the Charter, the convention is turning out to be a more transparent, democratic and open formula than the classic procedure of the Intergovernmental Conferences. It is a formula for the future and I believe we should take it very seriously. In this regard, I will add two decisive points. One is, for Parliament, that decisions made by qualified majority should be accompanied by the codecision procedure, and the second point is that we must favour integration over closer cooperation, because what we are actually doing is integrating. In the economic field, what we need is greater coordination of economic, social and employment policies. We must implement the conclusions of the European Council in Lisbon, which are positive and have achieved a broad consensus in this Parliament as well, but this requires that we increase our capacity for economic government. If we wish to create employment, if we wish to defend and fulfil the social agenda at a time when the European train is beginning to move faster and needs more steam, the last thing we need is for our work to be hindered by a strictly monetarist management with no economic counterbalance. That is an absolutely decisive point for the coming months. Lastly, Madam President, I would like to make a very brief comment: the report on the progress made with regard to enlargement has been important because it indicates how the problems are being overcome and how we have to maintain this will with the countries with whom we are negotiating. I believe that it is also important for the Commission, with regard to the Balkans, to take account of the fact that there is a country which could become a bridge – having before been a barrier – towards the Balkans, and that is Croatia. After the political change which has taken place, the Commission should intensify the negotiation of the association agreement with Croatia. Finally, I would like to say a few words about the Middle East. I have just returned from a visit to Syria and Lebanon and I welcome the fact that the President of the Commission is there at the moment. I agree that the Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon is very important and we must support Barak, but we should also intensify our partnership with Syria and Lebanon. We must have an active policy in order to contribute towards resolving the dramatic problem of the Palestinian refugees, and we can actively offer ideas and resources in order to ensure that the Middle East peace process will make decisive progress, which would also lead to a greater opening up and intensification of the Euro-Mediterranean process. All of these elements are on the agenda and I hope that the European Council in Feira will make progress.

Political group: PSE