Mr President-in-Office, the problems we have to face at this moment are vital for the future of the Union and we intend to give them absolute priority. It is on these that we shall assess the work of your presidency. The concerns that have surrounded it, however, are not all due to prejudice. The unresolved conflict of interests remains a legitimate source of concern that extends well beyond our own country. In addition, the resignation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ruggiero, had a significant effect on the way people understand Italy’s role in Europe, the same Europe that Minister Bossi dubbed ‘Forcolandia’ [‘Gallowsland’] because it is repressive, and which he has today branded a neo-Jacobin project, intrinsically authoritarian and globalising. Perhaps this accounts for your coolness towards working seriously on the construction of a European area of justice, freedom and security, starting with the European arrest warrant, which ought to be approved by December 2003. Major problems, I was saying: the Constitution, first of all. We ask that the next Intergovernmental Conference should not put the Convention’s results forward for further discussion and that Italy should make every effort to improve the text on essential points, such as the extension of majority voting. On economic questions, we see that the Italian Presidency intends to relaunch the idea of public investment for infrastructure. We shall also add training, research and the environment. This proposal can only make headway if it adopts a truly European perspective, if it is firmly anchored in the Community method and is financially viable. With regard to pensions, you are well aware, Mr President-in-Office, that Europe has no competence in the field of social security schemes, which are so diverse and so closely tied in with welfare policies. Does the Presidency really mean to promote a European initiative in the economic and social field? Well, then, it should do its best to have taxation and social policies brought within the Community’s competence in the new Treaty, based on the guidelines of real European control of the economy, as this Parliament has been demanding for some time. In these matters, however, the method of consulting the social partners has to be followed, as laid down in the Lisbon strategy. As regards immigration, one cannot invoke just one piece of European policy – the part relating to frontier controls to combat illegal immigration – and ignore all the others, on the management of the influx and the reception and rights of those who, by coming here to seek work, contribute to the economic growth of our countries, those, let us be clear, whom your Minister for Reforms lumps together as ‘Bingo Bongos’. Lastly, on the matter of foreign policy, it is possible to be both Europeans and friends of the USA. Friendship, however, is a relationship that must not fall into subservience. After the difficult Iraqi crisis, it is therefore even more urgent to define a sound common foreign and security policy, backed by overthrowing the right of veto. A clear framework for the Union’s foreign relations was drawn up at Thessaloniki, distinguishing further prospects of enlargement from closer relations with our neighbours; in this context, after the contradictory statements that you and your Minister for European Policies have made regarding Turkey, we hope that what you told us this morning will stand. Similarly, for the Middle East, we hope that the peace process will be supported by the Italian Presidency, but to reach this goal it will be necessary to talk to and take into consideration all the parties involved. I wish you success in your work, Mr President-in-Office! (Applause)

Political group: PSE