Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, it goes without saying that every presidency has its positive aspects, as well as others that are deserving of criticism. Every presidency also has the option of shuffling some things off on to the other Member States. If we tend today to mention more of the points of criticism, then that is, of course, in the interests of debate. There is, however, one positive aspect that I would like to mention, and that is the Interinstitutional Agreement, which it is intended should be now concluded, following lengthy preparatory work by Commission President Prodi and in Parliament. After a great deal of discussion with Mr de Miguel, the Secretary of State, we have now managed it. For this, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I would like to thank you and, especially, Secretary of State Miguel. Reform of the Council has yielded less glorious results, especially as regards transparency. That transparency should have to do with only part of lawmaking, only at its outset and conclusion, and only in a particular way, is actually ridiculous. We really should not fight shy of the transparency that exists in Parliament. What we demand of the Council is complete transparency in all aspects of the lawmaking process. The confirmation, as on so many occasions in the past, that there is, in principle, a desire to make Tampere a reality, is being celebrated as a great success in the immigration field. It is not one yet, however. Little progress has been made even under the Spanish Presidency. You must be honest in admitting, Mr Aznar, that the only really 'big' idea, the imposition of sanctions on the immigrants' countries of origin, has not been a success. That it has not been a success has been, thank God, the work of our group. It would have been absurd to punish the poorest of the poor. The people we must punish are the criminal gangs who get the poorest of the poor to part with all the money they have and promise them heaven on earth in return. Often, what they end up with is death in the Mediterranean. What the world's poorest countries need is cooperation and aid in order to reduce the pressure to emigrate. Now for my last point. Mr President-in-Office of the Council, if I am to believe the Handelsblatt, which is normally a serious newspaper, you said this: 'I believe that the has lost its direction. It is afraid of the modern world, a world of change and innovation.' Mr President-in-Office of the Council, the , at any rate the social , has no fear of modernisation or of change. We simply know that many people in our society are afraid that this change and modernisation will make them losers. Modernisation and change do not just produce winners; there are also those who lose out through them and these are the people with whom we have to concern ourselves. If we Social Democrats do not look out for them, they will be easy prey for populist movements, especially on the Right, which cannot be in our common interest, as these movements exploit fear of immigration and of the enlargement of the European Union. We, though, want immigration to be properly controlled. We want and need enlargement as our next great step forward. So it must be the concern of Social Democrats that the opportunity to show solidarity, which is the social dimension of modernisation, privatisation and liberalisation, is not lost. A European Union that does not demonstrate solidarity with the weaker members of society cannot be a success. That is what Social Democracy stands for – we are not afraid of reforms. We want to help all those who fear unemployment and instability. (Applause)

Political group: PSE