Madam President, congratulations on being seated there today. Thank you to the two Commissioners who are present and thank you also to the whole of the Commission's team. I would also like to thank the Council. I believe it was only by working together that we managed to achieve real success here. I include in this, by the way, our colleague Mr Westendorp, who headed our delegation and, unfortunately, is not here this evening, but I believe he deserves as much gratitude as everyone else. There are just a few points that I want to address. First, I believe that many Members have yet again forgotten a number of things, above all those whom I always describe as permanently engaging in mantra politics by repeating the same thing over and over again. I believe that they are forgetting that Doha opened a way ahead for negotiations and laid down a strategy for them. We should give more consideration to how we can work together with the Commission and the Council in future, for it is only now that the actual negotiations are happening. The subjects for discussion must be defined, and it is by no means certain that apparent successes we have achieved on many points will prove to be lasting successes over the years, and so I would like to ask the Commissioners in particular how they actually envisage cooperation with Parliament. I would like this cooperation to be substantially more precise and detailed, giving a much more accurate view of the state of negotiations you will be engaged in on the various subject areas, and also signalling where there are difficulties or problems, not only giving definite information on many points, but actually facilitating political monitoring as well. Let me make another point. I believe it will be much more important than in the past to join up policies on trade and foreign affairs. I would particularly like to mention in this context two regions – the European Union and the United States. I believe that the European Union and the United States bear to an incredible degree responsibility for the future definition of trade policy, which is much more than can be summed up in the traditional trade themes we were familiar with in the past, incorporating as it does so many new ones. Development of traditional trade policy and its connection with new subject matter will be the difficult task to be faced in the future. You – above all Commissioners Lamy and Fischer – managed to bring that off elegantly in Doha, but, as I said at the outset, the real work is only getting under way now. I believe we must attach much more emphasis to putting foreign policy regarding countries such as, for example, India, Singapore or China, but also regarding many of the Latin American countries, on a much firmer footing, using a stronger foreign policy to achieve greater understanding for what we actually want to achieve in the sphere of trade policy. There is still the prevalent feeling in certain countries and states that we are actually using our trade policy to engage in indirect protectionism. We should take care that this sentiment does not arise in the first place, and that, if it does, it can be rooted out. The Singaporean Ambassador has again drawn my attention to his country's long-standing desire to conclude a free trade agreement with the EU. I believe that bilateral free trade agreements bring with them the possibility of opening doors of that sort, and also have the potential to achieve greater multilateral rapprochement by means of bilateral negotiations. Commissioners, perhaps you would be so kind as to tell us what you think about that.

Political group: PSE