Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen. Mr Haarder, I was going to congratulate you on your application of the Spartan rules of European Parliament terseness as a representative of the Council, but you have taken them to the extreme by omitting to tell us what happened in Elsinore. Allow me, therefore, to ask you what Mr Patten asked the Members of this Parliament: is the Council unanimous? Do you agree with the account of the Elsinore meeting given by the Vice-President of the Commission? These questions are very important for this debate. I say this because we have observed a verbal escalation on the part of the President of the United States over the summer, which, on this highly sensitive subject, comprises obvious risks. I think we need to distinguish between two subjects: one is our judgment of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. There is no defence for this cruel, tyrannical dictatorship, which does not hesitate to use genocide against its own people, through the suppression of both individuals and groups. We must also, however, take account of something else. You mentioned long-term sanctions. These are counterproductive. Similarly, we must take into account that we in Europe have managed to overcome the nationalism that did us so much harm in the past. Here, too, President Mitterrand used to say that nationalism is war. We Europeans have overcome it, but the Arab world is in a different cultural dimension, and nationalist sentiment, pride and confrontation, where necessary, make sense. We must therefore pay close attention to what President Mubarak said, which is that unilateral intervention without the support of the United Nations would certainly have a devastating effect throughout the Middle East. Our progress in resolving the conflict is therefore extremely important and there I believe the Danish Presidency has made an important proposal with regard to the creation of the Palestinian State. It would be useful if the Presidency explained this to us. We must take this into careful consideration if we are to avoid being accused of applying double standards in this situation. With regard to the philosophy of the current American Government, I believe that Bush junior should pay greater attention to what his father did 10 years ago, for one reason: President Bush senior achieved a very broad coalition and acted in accordance with the United Nations mandate. I am not going to talk about the debate underway in the United States, but it is odd, and it has already been said, that here civilians seem for the first time to be launching a military coup against the military forces, since those who have had military responsibilities, including in this field, are the most cautious when it comes to dealing with this issue. Let us hope that all this remains a purely verbal escalation. With regard to our relations with the United States, I think it would be useful for President Bush to come here, but we must also talk to the US Congress. About this, about the International Criminal Court and compliance with the application of WTO Panel decisions and resolutions on such important subjects as the Foreign Sales Act. Although these are not the subjects of today’s debate, it is important for us to talk to the US Congress, as our interlocutor. On the subject of Iraq – and I am anxious to hear your explanations – my group endorse the position voted by Parliament on 16 May 2002, four days before the Council adopted it. We think that peace and stability in the region, in a region as fraught as the Middle East, can only be ensured within the framework of the United Nations. I hope your explanation on the position reached at Elsinore will be along these lines. We think it is very important to maintain humanitarian aid and we hope that the United Nations, under the leadership of Kofi Annan, will be able to make Iraq comply with its international agreements and allow inspectors back into the country. We believe this is the best way forward. (Applause)

Political group: PSE