Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen of the Commission, I am assuming that you will be receiving a vote of confidence from this Chamber tomorrow. I should therefore like to speak to you directly, but I must first make just one comment to Mr Galeote who is also now being so kind as to put his headphones on. You started out by saying that we ought not to be discussing any internal political matters here. You then went on to spend at least half of your speech dealing with just such internal political matters. If you have seen how reticently Enrique Barón has addressed the subject, then you will see how reticently we too are dealing with it, because we do not want to deal with any internal political matters. Mr President of the Commission, I can agree one hundred per cent with the programme you have put forward today. I should not like, therefore, to comment upon it in more detail but, rather, to mention a few more points in particular. First of all, we are engaged in a process – and here I should like to take up a concept which Michel Barnier used during the hearings – a process of developing a constitution. This is not something which we can do overnight, but it is something which we really must set in progress over the next few years. For this, there needs to be a big European debate. You yourself have said – and I agree with you, Mr President of the Commission – that a succession of Intergovernmental Conferences is not particularly appealing. I would imagine that you are making proposals from your own point of view too about how you see this process of developing a constitution. For the Commission must in fact have a leading role to play. In this connection, Mr President, I must mention that a number of the Members of your Commission have still not perhaps made the relevant approach to the European Commissioner in the course of these hearings. A number of them were still too caught up in the business of the governments to which they belonged or in the roles set by their individual nations. Here, the European consciousness must certainly be strengthened, above all because we are unfortunately also seeing increasing nationalism, which we must combat. Secondly, reform of the institutions. In yesterday’s debate here, we were in complete agreement with what Commissioner Kinnock stated. It was a clear and unambiguous creed of reform and could not have been clearer. I should like, however, to repeat exactly what he said: “deeds speak louder than words”. That is the basis on which we shall judge you. I am convinced that deeds will in fact follow, but it is they that will be the yardstick for our further ratification of the Commission in the years to come. The third point is the question of openness and transparency. Yes, it is also a measure of the relationship of the Commission to this Parliament that we demand complete openness, the full truth and not half-truths or statements which mislead. That, for us, is the deciding factor. It is also quite clear – and this too we have always said unambiguously – that if it should prove that a Member of the Commission has lied to this Parliament, then our confidence in that particular Commissioner has certainly been destroyed. We are therefore absolutely in favour of there being in addition to – I emphasise, in addition to – the principle of collegiality, the principles of individual trust and individual responsibility. Only, we do not want a situation in which a multi-party policy plays any role here. We do not want Commissioners from small political groups from small countries being to some degree open to blackmail by majorities in this Chamber. So we have to take this with a pinch of salt. We need sensible regulations which do not undermine and interfere with the principle of collegiality. A last word about the hearings. They were positive. Not everyone shone all the time, but it is easier being the examiner than the examinee. On the whole, though, we find that this Commission is in a position to be a strong Commission but, Mr Prodi, a strong Commission because you can be certain that we shall be a strong and alert Parliament. The two together can nicely set about the necessary reform of the European institutions. We wish you good luck with your work.

Political group: PSE