Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to express my surprise that the President of the European Commission is not here today. This is a debate about the Swedish presidency, about an important summit, and I really am amazed. This comment is not aimed at you, Commissioner Wallström, I respect you personally and I respect your work. However, it is not acceptable for the President of the Commission to be represented by a Member of the Commission from the country currently holding the presidency. This is not just some kind of Swedish project, we are discussing the future of Europe. In future I expect to see the President of the European Commission here in plenary when such important matters are being discussed. (Applause) I would first like to make a positive comment and then a critical one. First of all, let me remind you that my group has proposed that we should conclude the accession negotiations with the first countries by autumn 2002, so that the first countries could then participate in the June 2004 European elections. This has been accepted by this House, by the Commission and by the European Council in Nice, and you are now saying this in an even more specific way. I realise that there has been strong opposition to this. However, you have been successful, and we are also grateful that a broad majority of the Swedish people is in favour of enlargement. Mr President-in-Office, if you are right, if you do something positive, then you deserve recognition for that and I would like to express my thanks and recognition to you for having got the 2004 deadline included in the decisions taken at Göteborg. (Applause from the centre and right) While we are talking about the Swedish people, an extremely likeable people, I would like to express the hope – in your own interest as well, Mr President-in-Office, as the Swedish Prime Minister – that agreement to enlargement will, in future, be matched by agreement on the single European currency, so that Sweden will remain fully integrated in our European political family. I wish that for you and for all of us, because we are a Community. A decision by Sweden in favour of the euro is also part of this. (Applause from the centre and right) But now for a critical comment. There were some tragic disturbances in Göteborg, but I do not want to judge the police's handling of the security arrangements, because I know far too little about that. However, I would like to comment on what you, Mr President-in-Office, said on Swedish television on 17 June. My colleague Gunilla Carlsson, the chair of the Swedish delegation in our group, has already said something about this. You spoke about Fascist forces. To avoid any misunderstanding, let me say that I am most definitely in favour of resolutely fighting Fascists and right-wing extremists wherever they appear, politically speaking, and whenever they use force. But on Thursday, during our preparatory meeting of the Group of the , we could see that the flags being paraded through Göteborg were red ones, and no acts of actual violence took place until the Friday to Saturday. You could see portraits of Che Guevara and of Fidel Castro, so you cannot just say that Fascists were involved. We also know, and I can quote a major European newspaper, that the hard core was an anti-Fascist group of left-wing revolutionaries taking belligerent and critical action against the European movement and against world trade. We would have expected you to be just as critical of those left-wing revolutionaries who use force as we are against those on the right who resort to violence. Europe and our legal system are too important for us to turn a blind eye. We should not, because of superficial party interests, fail to recognise the wider importance of our democratic and constitutional system, and we should join forces against any form of violence, whichever side it comes from, from the extreme right or the extreme left, as an act of democratic solidarity. (Applause) Mr President-in-Office, let me make one more observation. You have made great efforts to achieve transparency, indeed that is one of the hallmarks of Sweden, and we have made a little progress as regards publishing documents. You can take some credit for that, but not all of it. For example, our colleague and your fellow citizen, Charlotte Cederschiöld, has helped a lot in ensuring that we have achieved greater transparency in this regard. We should continue to follow this path. We also want greater cooperation with the Council of Ministers and a greater presence here in the European Parliament. There were also some critical comments about this at the beginning, but they did not relate to Sweden, but rather to the Council of Ministers. However, I believe that we can build on your work. My final comment is about a positive signal: you invited the President of the Russian Federation, Mr Putin, and the American President, George Bush, to the Göteborg Summit. It would certainly be a good thing if we in the European Parliament could also invite these two figures to visit our Parliament, perhaps in the reverse order, first President Bush and then President Putin, as our relations with America and Russia are vital for the future of the European Union. Mr President-in-Office, it is not for me to award marks, but one Swedish newspaper asked me a few weeks ago what mark I would give if I were. If the next Swedish presidency refrains from scoring veiled party political points and genuinely focuses on Europe's interests, it might deserve 'very good'. I say that on behalf of all of us. I wish Sweden a positive future in Europe. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE