Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by congratulating you, Mr President, on what has happened in Ireland. You have had an incredible fight, with the support of many Members of this House, to all of whom I would like to express my gratitude. I would also like to thank the Irish members of my group and of Fine Gael, which is in Opposition, and whose sense of responsibility to Europe led them to decide unequivocally in favour of a Yes vote. That is a success also for you, Mr President, and I would like to offer you my warm congratulations. It is a success for us all! (Applause) Life brings situations about which it is no pleasure to have to speak. Today is one of them. Whilst wishing to place on record my personal regard and fondness for Romano Prodi, the President of the Commission, as a person, I have to add that we are dealing here, not with relationships between people, but with the acceptance of responsibility. That is why an overwhelming majority in my group is of the definite opinion that something has happened that must not be allowed to repeat itself in the same way. (Applause) Last Friday, the President of the Commission had this to say to Le Monde: 'I know very well that the Stability and Growth Pact is stupid, like all decisions that are rigid’. We were dumbfounded when we heard this. If you are talking about the authority that an institution needs, then I agree with you, but you will be granted it only if the authority of the Commission is not compromised still further. We call on you to do what has to be done to that end. (Applause) It was with astonishment that we learned that Mr Prodi's spokesman reiterated on Friday of last week that the President of the Commission regretted not one word of what he had said. (Applause) Now anyone can make mistakes. But when you do, and if you come to realise it, you have to have the guts to say, ‘I was wrong, I regret having said that.’ Mr President of the Commission, I regret that you have not taken the opportunity today to correct that unspeakable sentence and to say, ‘I withdraw that sentence; it was a mistake.’ Commissioner Solbes himself contradicted you in his statement in Barcelona last Friday, in which he said, much as he has done today, that the Commission's various initiatives over the past three years have demonstrated that the Stability and Growth Pact is flexible enough to accommodate policies that make economic sense. Commissioner Solbes does not belong to our family of parties, and that is why we are not dealing with this issue in a party-political way, but in a manner befitting the matter in hand. He said quite clearly that he and the Commission – in its role as guardian of the Treaties – took responsibility for the Stability and Growth Pact being adhered to. For that, Commissioner Solbes, I would like to express my group's gratitude. We also have to make one thing clear here. Room for manoeuvre exists in the form of the 3% maximum deficit, which is reasonable when times are hard. When things are going well, however, we have to work towards a balanced budget, and Commissioner Solbes said as much. That is why it is quite simply wrong to say that the Pact, as it is today, is not flexible. I regret to have to say that the Commission President's judgment has given the impression that Europe's policies and thinking are leaving the door wide open to a deficit policy. If statements and developments like that become reality, we will declare our determined resistance. More debt means more inflation. More inflation means higher interest rates, and higher interest rates mean that business can invest less. The eventual result of a policy of more deficits will be a lack of money for investment, and the only winners will be the banks. That is not our vision of the social market economy in Europe. Mr President, what perturbs me most about this whole affair is the impression that the President of the Commission cast aspersions on current European law. He is the guardian of the Treaties and at the head of the Commission. It is for him and them to defend European law, rather than to cast doubt upon the Stability and Growth Pact in this way! (Applause) Mr President of the Commission, I say these things with all my personal respect for you. What deals were done when you gave your undertakings? We find it intolerable that small countries such as Portugal should get the blue letter treatment. Yes, I know, that was decided by the Finance Ministers. Yet the big countries end up getting off scot free. The little fish get caught, and the big ones are allowed to get away. (Loud applause) If that is the principle on which Europe is run, then this Community is going down a perilous road by infringing Community law. I urge the Commission to act in such a way that we can again back it up wholeheartedly. But trust has been seriously damaged, and I hope that you will restore it. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE