Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my group will vote for the Supplementary and Amending Budget out of necessity and due to the lack of viable alternatives, because in this crisis situation, urgent action is needed. We do so in the awareness that in recent years BSE has often been accompanied by significant government failures, and the mistakes of the past are still coming back to haunt us. So the Community has a responsibility to play its part in overcoming this crisis as well. We will also vote for the 70/30 split, because we want to adopt the budget as quickly as possible, even though some people in this House would have wished to examine this issue more fully for future occasions. Let me also add that at this difficult time that we should do our utmost to act in a serious and responsible manner and not add to the panic. I for one do not want to have to adopt one supplementary budget after another. I should like to remind everyone that we are only a third of the way through implementing the much-vaunted Agenda 2000. We cannot celebrate this as a success and the basis of European business until 2006, and then slam on the brakes and deal it a death blow at the first available opportunity. That will not enhance our credibility. In any emergency, urgent measures are needed – but anyone wishing to change tack too abruptly at such a time could easily capsize in Europe's fickle waters. An energetic approach is needed, but so too is sensitivity, if the issues are to be addressed seriously. The task now – of course, against the background of enlargement towards Eastern Europe and the next world trade round as well – is to develop the common agricultural policy and the European model of consumer protection and agriculture in line with Member States' pledges in the international arena regarding Agenda 21, resource protection, sustainability, and balancing natural resource use on the one hand, and the use of technology and the economy on the other. Mr President, I believe that the situation is now so serious that it is not enough for the European Parliament alone to deal with these issues. In my view – and this is our group's demand – the Heads of State and Government must discuss these issues at their forthcoming summit in Stockholm and provide honest answers to this crisis. An answer must be found to the loss of consumer confidence. The Member States must finally do their homework more promptly than in the past. We have countless examples of occasions when the Commission was initially pressed to act and finally responded, but the Member States acted too late. We must put an end to this situation. We must also find answers to some of the attacks and aspersions cast on the professional integrity of farmers. Some of what is happening goes beyond what is acceptable. The Heads of State and Government must find an answer to this problem. And the question is, do we really want to overcome this crisis? For if we fail to do so, we will find that two years down the line, half the beef farms in Europe will have gone out of business. So this means that there must be a response, and a change of course, from the Heads of State and Government too.

Political group: PPE-DE