Madam President, Secretary of the Council and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Commissioner, firstly I would like to welcome the appearance of Mr Solana, in his three-fold capacity as Secretary-General of the Council, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the WEU, currently in pectore. I imagine that in terms of the Community budget, they will be three jobs for one salary. I wish you luck. I am not going to sing the praises of Javier Solana. We have shared a great friendship and many years of struggle, first for the freedom of my country and then for our integration into Europe. And I expect that the defence of democratic values which he displayed in earlier incarnations will accompany him and inspire him in his new task. For the first time the Council has a human face – and I hope this is permanent – and I am sure that Mr Solana will be able to confront this challenge, which I believe is important not only for the Council, but also for the development of the European Union as a whole. Since much has been said about his duty as High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, I would like to mention an aspect which I consider to be important: our Common Foreign and Security Policy will be, fundamentally, a reflection and extension of our internal strength. Our ability to create a Common Foreign and Security Policy, and also a defence policy, will depend on how united we are on the consolidation of our strength. This means that Mr Solana will not only have to deal with the more immediate question of crisis prevention, but also – and he has some experience in this – that of our role in the world, that is to say, the United Nations, the Millennium Round and the future of the IMF and the FAO; it is also important in the sense that Europeans, in constructing Europe, are also doing something important for the future and stability of humanity. I believe that this consideration must inspire his activities and, at the same time, as Secretary of the Council, I hope it will allow him to help in the task of reforming and giving coherence to that institution which, at the moment, is perhaps the institution which most requires the impetus of rationalisation. Mr Solana has spoken at length on the security and defence question. I believe that he is the person who has shown himself, in this historic process, to be the most capable of seeing through the complex evolution which involves the development of a European identity in terms of defence, in which NATO itself and our North American partners are coming to accept the need for a strong European pillar, not only in the field of defence, but also in terms of the industrial dimension which must support it and also in the role of stabilising and consolidating democracy in Europe and the Mediterranean. To this end, I believe that he will have a decisive role to play at the upcoming OSCE meeting as regards the crisis in Chechnya. My colleagues will comment on these issues later. I would like to conclude my remarks by speaking of the need for close cooperation with the Commission – and I am not asking Mr Patten to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mr Solana. We simply need them to understand each other perfectly. And with regard to the role of this Parliament, I believe that in recent years we have shown our capacity to help and collaborate and I understand that, from the point of view of the form that the dimension and development of the Union’s defence and security policy can and must take, we can play an important role in relation to the rest of the world. I believe that, on this occasion, we must offer our cooperation and show the most positive of attitudes.

Political group: PSE