Mr President, despite the changes, or perhaps because of them, we in the Community institutions must reaffirm our political commitment to strengthening integration. The European Parliament has often reiterated the need for the European Union to play a solid role on the international stage and to be able to speak consistently in that context. To this end, the Maastricht reform drew up the CFSP and for the same purpose various proposals are currently being considered with a view to 2004. Nevertheless, for the European Union to consolidate its external role, it is necessary, firstly, to organise and strengthen the external policy instruments which the Union already has and, in particular, its external service. We must accept that the external service, which currently has such important functions, suffers from numerous shortcomings which have not been surmounted, despite the reforms promoted by the European Commission itself, and, therefore, this Parliament last September approved the own-initiative report ‘Common European Diplomacy’, with a view to greater efficiency in the exercise of the Union’s external policy. At that time we proposed moving ahead decisively on three fronts: firstly, improving the training of Community officials destined to be involved in external activity through the creation, eventually, of a Community diplomatic school and the linking of national diplomatic corps through a system of ‘walkways’ which would be created for that purpose. Secondly, we proposed the clarification and development of the legal status of delegations, their role and their relationship with the institutions; and, lastly, we proposed the improvement of the coordination between the delegations and the external services of the Member States, for which we suggested, amongst other things, promoting the grouping together of the missions of Member States who so desire with the Commission’s delegation whenever, wherever and however possible. At that time, Commissioner Patten told this House that he would consider those recommendations very carefully and would prepare a communication on the external services during the first half of 2001, which we are eagerly awaiting. However, while waiting for more ambitious initiatives, Parliament must now give its opinion on the latest communication from the Commission on the development of the external service, which clearly has a much more limited objective, since it basically focuses on the network of delegations and their staff. It is a welcome communication nevertheless, since it allows us to open a debate on that important issue. In this communication the Commission confirms its will to make progress on decentralisation and on the deconcentration of external aid. This can only be seen as positive even though it requires greater human resources and therefore an increase in costs, which, I believe, we must contribute to. We indicate, however, that not all the difficulties in the operation of the delegations and the management of external aid are caused by the lack of resources. The Commission must also adopt additional measures, such as contracting policies, training plans and a review of procedures. With regard to the network of delegations, the Commission’s proposal to move ahead with regionalisation seems appropriate, although we must consider opening up new delegations in certain countries of South-East Asia, the Gulf region and Latin America, as well as Switzerland. In this context, we must express our concern at the recent rumour that the Commission is considering the possibility of closing its delegation in Costa Rica. I therefore take a positive view of this communication from the Commission. I believe that it takes us in the right direction, but it clearly does not fully deal with the issue. We hope that in the coming weeks the Commission will approve a new communication, a more ambitious one, which takes account of the opinions of Parliament and finally allows us to rationalise, organise and improve the external service, so that it may become an effective instrument for a solid European Union external policy.

Political group: PPE-DE