Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, above all as a person from Madrid and speaking on behalf of my fellow countrymen in this House, please allow me to express my gratitude for the expressions of support, solidarity and condolences received not only from Europe but from the whole world. I would like expressly to address President Cox, because his institutional declaration on behalf of Parliament had an enormous impact in Madrid and in Spain and was a match for the dramatic circumstances we are living through. We have shown that we are building Europe through the minutes of silence all Europeans held following the tragic events in Madrid. If the Taoiseach – who, unfortunately, shares with me and with others a long experience of fighting terrorism – will allow me, I would like, as well as expressing gratitude for these gestures – and this applies to both sides of the Atlantic – to say that we must not confuse stoicism and resistance with cowardice and appeasement; that terrorism must not only be fought with tanks, planes and invasions; it must be fought with dignity, with resistance and also with the necessary coordination of intelligence services and with legislation such as that we have been trying to create in the European Union since 11 September. In this regard, I must say to the Council that Parliament worked extremely quickly and that the Council, in this case, has taken a step forward with the appointment of Mr De Vries – and I agree with Mr Poettering’s criticisms with regard to the circumstances of this appointment – but it is notable that, at the moment, five Community countries have yet to transpose the arrest warrant into their national legislation and that we still have problems in terms of the application, specifically, of measures to combat money-laundering. This demonstrates that we are not working seriously to combat terrorism and that we have to take very important steps, because we feel solidarity but we are all threatened. Having said this, Mr President, please allow me to move on to the second issue, which is the Constitution. I believe we should welcome the step forward taken by the Irish Presidency and I believe that the announcement of the candidate to the Presidency of the Spanish Government, Mr Zapatero, has been a significant step forward in terms of unblocking this situation. He has stated that the Spanish, the Government of Spain, believe we must be back in Europe and, furthermore, taking the approach which governments of my political colour have always followed. In relation to this point I would like to point out, on the one hand, something which is very important: qualified majority and codecision, which are essential issues in terms of European democracy. Furthermore, I would like to address the President of the Commission and say that the circumstances in which he finds himself must lead us to reflect on an important issue, which is the role of the Commission. Because he has very good Commissioners, President Prodi is at risk of almost always being ‘on the raft of Medusa’ at the end of the term of office. We already have at least three or four Commissioners who are returning to their countries – which demonstrates that there is life after the European Union – but this is raising a serious problem: we cannot continue with a situation in which a Commissioner is in office for just ten months. That is not sustainable. I would also like to draw attention to the fact that the Greek Commissioner, Mr Dimas – and I do not believe this is his responsibility – has spoken in plenary before moving on to the hearing in the relevant committee. We must all try to take care to respect the way things are done, that is essential in a democracy. With regard to the Constitution, Mr President, I would also like to thank the former Mayor of Rome, Mr Rutelli, for the gesture of solidarity and dignity he has shown in proposing an amendment – which I hope will be approved today in Parliament – which gives this treaty we must approve, the European Constitution, the title of ‘Constitution of Madrid’. I believe this is a gesture we can all be proud of and naturally I intend to support it. Finally, with regard to the important issue of Cyprus, I would like on behalf of our group to reiterate our unconditional support for the efforts being made by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to find a solution to the issue of Cyprus and by doing so to help the enlargement process to be successful. I believe we must call on both parties to take this historic opportunity and to unify a country which has been divided for 40 years, thereby removing the last remaining wall in Europe.

Political group: PSE