Mr President, Commissioner, despite the major steps taken in recent years to achieve genuine European citizenship, a great deal still needs to be done to guarantee equal, fundamental rights to all the citizens. That is the essence of the report before us, an excellent, high-quality, comprehensive report – and I would like to congratulate Mr Coelho – which is, at the same time, a kind of stock-take and revitalisation of the major project seeking to guarantee all the citizens equal opportunities, free movement, residence throughout the Community territory and free access to employment, justice and all rights, making innovative developments benefiting the citizens of third countries too. These basic principles are complemented by the undertaking to provide all the citizens with a real job, a real house, adequate healthcare and prospects of social and other growth in addition to economic growth. Moreover, the recognition of fundamental rights must go hand in hand with the consolidation of measures to combat xenophobia, religious discrimination and discrimination on grounds of sex, race or social condition. A particularly interesting section is that exploring transnational methodologies for achieving practical police and judicial cooperation. As regards these areas of cooperation, innovative proposals are also included relating to the involvement of the different groups of long-term legal immigrants. Particularly topical – as many Members have pointed out – is the concern expressed in a section of the report at the low level of interest hitherto displayed by the European citizens in respect of the European Parliament elections. If we encourage the development of genuine citizenship, this should be the decisive factor which will also lead to greater political awareness among the people at the time of European elections and to the many other forms of direct participation which are becoming increasingly available to all the European citizens. It is important to make the citizens aware that European citizenship – a term which is often bandied about in this Chamber – does not replace national citizenship, which remains undiminished, retaining all its associations of cultural, historical and social roots which connect different races of peoples which, however, are united in a common destiny, the destiny of the European Union. We cannot, therefore, accept the amendments tabled by the Group, which impose a certainly excessive and dangerous acceleration on the process of integration of citizens from all the third countries, who are resident in Community territory without distinction. This is certainly a desirable development which should be contemplated in the future – that active and passive voting rights and long-term residence permits should be granted to third-country citizens – but the time is not yet ripe for it to be fully implemented, at least for it to be implemented across the board and to include all nationalities. A number of disparities are still present and, not least, where some third countries are concerned, there is no desire for reciprocity of this kind. In any case, it is important that we succeed in establishing a fundamental concept: these issues fall strictly within the sphere of Community competence. Just recently, we read in the press that some Member States appear to be claiming regulation in this field as part of their own national competence. This would be a serious mistake: there cannot be any disparity in the ways major issues such as asylum, integration, the recognition of civil rights – including the right to vote, most importantly – and the right to citizenship are treated within the Union.

Political group: PPE-DE