Madam President, I would like to start by saying how moved I was by the response to President Prodi's important speech and that I fully support the consensus expressed by Parliament. Mr Prodi dealt thoroughly with issues which are very important to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, of which I have the honour of being the Chairman. I would also like to thank Mr Moscovici for his careful, thorough response to the oral question which I tabled on behalf of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Therefore, since Mr Moscovici has already provided an excellent description of the question, I will not go back over the same ground now but focus on his response and on the questions which he, in his turn, has posed to Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs. I cannot conceal my satisfaction, which, I feel, is shared by the great majority of Parliament, at the results achieved by the Convention entrusted with drawing up the Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights, and I would like to express my wholehearted appreciation of the work put in by all the members of the Convention, especially the European Parliament delegation and its outstanding Chairman, Mr Méndez de Vigo. I agree with Mr Moscovici's detailed, well-substantiated evaluation of what he defined a twofold success, une double réussite, referring to both procedure and text. The European Parliament will express its opinion regarding the proclamation of the Charter at the appropriate time, but I have reason to believe that its opinion will be completely favourable. Turning to Mr Moscovici's questions: firstly, Mr President-in-Office, we are certainly not advocating running the risk of the Charter being rejected in Biarritz just because we are calling for it to be incorporated into the Treaties; however, in all honesty, I cannot imagine that responsible heads of government will reject the Charter, given the high quality of its content. Secondly, due consideration must certainly be given to the argument of timing – I am familiar with it, Minister, and it is a very strong argument – namely the fact that there has not yet been enough time for the issue to be fully explored and that the majority of the Member States are currently opposed to the idea. It is also true that we must have faith – and many of us do – in the power of the Charter as such and in its capacity to inspire the decisions of the Luxembourg Court, but what we are trying to say, Mr Moscovici, is that the issue of whether and how to incorporate the Charter into the Treaties cannot be avoided. It must be discussed at the Intergovernmental Conference and a solution will have to be found in Nice, for it is important both to guarantee the full legal effectiveness of the Charter and to ensure that it is the first stone laid in a process of constitutionalisation. (Applause) I am mentioning this because I was particularly struck by what you had to say on the matter, Minister. Rather than waiting for a Constitutional Charter to be established – to which the Charter of Fundamental Rights could become the preamble – to incorporate this Charter into the Treaties, it could serve as the basis for drawing up, over a longer period of time of course, a European Constitution. To sum up, what we want is to open a discussion on the matter in Biarritz and to continue until Nice, so that, at Nice and even after Nice, we will then be able to outline the practical steps to be taken once the Intergovernmental Conference is over. (Applause)

Political group: PSE