Mr President, Commissioner, Mr Leinen, ladies and gentlemen, last week – last Friday – the Convention, with the consent of the representatives of the governments and national parliaments of 28 countries, of the European Parliament and of the Commission, adopted the draft constitution for the EU. Many of us see this as having been an historic day. This draft, which brought the Convention’s labours to an end, is meant to make Europe more transparent, efficient and democratic, and to bring it closer to the people. In our own time, parliamentary democracy is characterised by political parties campaigning in elections and by parliamentary deputies – nominated by these parties and directly elected by the citizens – joining together in political groups in the parliaments. The Convention is strengthening the European Parliament by extending the codecision procedure, conferring upon Parliament full budgetary powers and giving it the right to elect the President of the Commission after the results of the elections to the European Parliament have been taken into account. Although we have spent the past few days applauding that this is so, and rejoicing that we have at last reached our destination, we have had, to date, no legally binding statute for Members of the European Parliament, because the Council is blocking it. Up to now, there has been no regulation on the legal status and financing of European political parties. We have no uniform right to vote. There are no European lists on which we can vote for candidates. Parliament’s adoption, during the last part-session in Strasbourg, of a Statute for its Members, closed a loophole. When, as I hope we will do tomorrow, we adopt the resolution on the legal status of European political parties – and especially following the Council’s decision on Monday, which we very much welcome – we will be closing a second loophole in democratic politics. My group supports the document before us and the compromise motions, having vigorously campaigned to get this loophole in democratic politics closed. In doing so, we have done what Amsterdam and Nice have required of us. We are fulfilling our promise to the Court of Auditors by putting a stop to cross-subsidies between groups and parties, where such a thing still exists. By doing this, we are creating greater transparency, openness and clarity in political work and in the way in which political parties’ activities are funded. By doing this, we are helping to make the national political parties more European and the work at European level more democratic. We are, then, creating the conditions for European lists and for a uniform European right to vote. The Group of the European People’s Party is glad that a distinction has been drawn between the work of the Groups in this House and that of the political parties, as also between the functions of national parties and the work of European ones. We rejoice at the clear demarcation between European election campaigns and those in the nation-states. We welcome the clear rules on what donors can do. We welcome the clear qualitative and quantitative criteria and the requirement for democratic legitimacy, both of which must be provided for and complied with if a party is to have European status. This does not amount to discrimination against small groups, for a party is European only if it operates not only at national level, but also in a specified number of Member States in which it enjoys democratic legitimacy and has partners. This leads me to ask you all, tomorrow, to close the continuing loophole in democratic politics and thereby to ensure greater transparency and clarity. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE