Mr President, I congratulate the President-in-Office on his speech and wish him well with his agenda. Mr Prodi has outlined the scale of the challenges we face and the measures that are needed; yet it seems to me that if the Union's backbone were as strong as its wishbone this debate might not be necessary. The list of unresolved economic reform issues on the agenda for the Spring Council makes depressingly familiar reading. A year ago, ahead of the Barcelona European Council, which one government dubbed the 'make or break summit' for economic reform, the Union was deadlocked over fundamental issues such as the Community Patent, the Take-over Bids Directive and the Pensions Directive. Ministers were at sixes and sevens over the Stability Pact, having failed to issue early warnings to Germany and Portugal. Resolving these issues was proclaimed to be the foremost objective of the heads of state and government. So how much progress have we made, one year on? On the Community Patent, which Mr Prodi mentioned - no progress. The best gloss that you can put on the new Take-over Bids Directive is that it is 'a work in progress'. Far from improving the situation, the Pensions Directive could actually represent a step backwards if adopted in the form currently advocated by Parliament's rapporteur. And Germany and Portugal have since been joined by France in the rogues' gallery of countries which are falling foul of the Stability Pact. In the midst of this litany of failure, in step Messrs Blair, Chirac and Schröder with another depressing example of letterbox diplomacy. After highlighting Europe's divisions on Iraq with the 'gang of 8' letter, the UK's Prime Minister has now formed a terrible trio of leaders with Mr Chirac and Mr Schröder, who presume to tell other leaders how to reform their economies while blocking economic progress themselves. To hear a clarion call for economic reform from a British Prime Minister whose continued indecision over joining the euro is hitting jobs, growth and investment, is more than a little galling. For the President of France to put his name to a letter calling for the rapid completion of the internal market, when France tops the charts for failure to implement single market legislation, is little short of breathtaking. And to be lectured on the need for Europe to reform labour markets and increase employment by a Chancellor who has presided over record levels of unemployment in Germany, really takes the biscuit. Perhaps a little humility from those three leaders is called for when it comes to economic reform. We are in the third year of the ten-year Lisbon plan to improve competitiveness. The truth is that progress has been disappointing. The keys to higher employment levels and sustainable growth lie in sound public finances, a dynamic private sector, the completion of the single market, a real European research area and incentives for work, skill and innovation. My group would emphasise in particular the importance of completing the financial services action plan, fostering entrepreneurship and promoting flexibility and adaptability in the labour market. We must also increase the participation of women, immigrants, older workers and disabled people in the labour market, and adapt tax and benefit systems to make work pay. These are the challenges we face and we have only seven years left it we are to achieve our goal of making Europe the most competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy in the world. Instead of setting new bold targets, the heads of state and government should get on with the job of closing the existing 'delivery gap' between their words and their actions.

Political group: ELDR