Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted that the President of the Commission received such warm applause, because he has really earned it. He deserved that warm applause for his comments, which were based on the Community method, and I too would like to focus my contribution on the Convention. I would first like to thank all our representatives to the Convention and its Chairman, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, very sincerely for all the work they have done up to now, although we have not reached our goal yet. If such clear progress had not been made over the past week, we might have found ourselves concerned about the risk of failure today. But I no longer have any such fears. Nevertheless, we need to make still further progress. My group firmly believes that there should be an agreed and definitive draft for the constitution, without any options. We do not want a proposal to emerge from the Convention that could be reopened by the Intergovernmental Conference. No, we want a final draft, a definitive programme, which we hope will then meet with the agreement of the governments. And there is one thing that we want above all: the preamble refers to our Greek and Roman heritage and to the Enlightenment, but we must insist that our Christian heritage is also referred to in the preamble of the European constitution, forming as it does part of our identity today. (Applause) We as the European Parliament demand equal rights in framing all European legislation, and we also demand that we should share budget rights with the Council, including medium-term financial planning. As regards the Commission, we want a strong Commission, and we welcome the suggestion that the President should be proposed by the Heads of State and Government on the basis of the election results, and that Parliament should then choose the President of the Commission. We want a strong Commission, because it, together with Parliament, and of course with the European Court of Justice, forms the heart of the European Community. We are also calling for the Convention to find a solution as regards the size of the Commission, a solution that ensures that the Commission is able to act, but one that also ensures that all the Member States of the European Union are represented in the Commission. I say that because all Member States, large and small, want a place at the Commission table. It is quite possible to think of mechanisms, including both rotation and junior Commissioners, that allow not only the large Member States but also the small ones to have a place at the Commission table. This is of great psychological importance for our common European project. We are also calling for the European Foreign Minister, who is at the same time to be the Vice-President of the Commission, to be subject – together with the entire Commission – to a vote of approval by Parliament. A situation in which the Foreign Minister has no link with Parliament is not acceptable. He too needs to have Parliament’s approval and confidence, and that is why we want him to be linked into the Commission as a whole, which will then have to be approved by us. As far as the Council is concerned, I can very largely agree with what the President of the Commission and of course with what the President-in-Office of the Council has said, not in every detail, but in their broad thrust. In instances where the Council is acting as the legislature, we need genuine transparency, and, as a legislature, the Council must as a matter of principle take decisions by majority vote. That brings us to the issue of the presidency of the European Council. The Convention Praesidium's proposal contains a formula according to which the President of the European Council should not belong to another institution. This is just a personal opinion, but I believe it would be a good thing if this sentence were to be deleted. We need to keep open the option that one day, if we can reach that point, the President of the European Commission can also be the President of the European Council. That is why I hope that this sentence, which still figures in the proposal, will finally be deleted. (Applause) I am happy to give my full support to the proposals for the European Court of Justice, for which I would specifically like to thank you, Mr Prodi. All or virtually all actions of the European Union must be subject to European law, because only if they are subject to court rulings will European actions be based on law rather than political opportunism. That is why it is so important that most areas of common European action, with very few exceptions, should be based on law and subject to control by the European Court of Justice. Only in that way will we become a genuine community of law. The same should apply to home affairs. I would like to thank you, Mr President-in-Office, for saying that the Greek Presidency will endeavour to achieve a result as regards the Statute for Members of the European Parliament. Mr President-in-Office, if we cannot achieve a result in the Council, then I fear that there will never be a Statute for Members. I think that we have now been wrestling with the issue of the Statute for Members for 15 years, and by finally reaching a decision yesterday, by reaching a decision today, we will have fulfilled our parliamentary obligations. I hope that you will manage to fulfil your own obligations. If you should fail, the Council will bear a great burden of responsibility. I therefore wish you every success in adopting the Statute for Members. I hope that you will also manage to adopt the European party statute, because it is very important indeed for all Europe's party political families, large and small, that we should have a party statute that ensures transparency and an ability to act, and I would very much encourage you to take this to heart. In conclusion I would like to make a comment about foreign policy, which will have a major role to play. Yesterday we had the President of Algeria, Mr Bouteflika, here with us. These days we naturally tend to look towards Eastern Europe. This weekend, this Saturday and Sunday, we are encouraging our Polish partners to vote ‘Yes’ to Europe in their referendum, to say ‘Yes’ to membership of the European Union. I had a wonderful experience last Sunday in Warsaw during a pro-accession demonstration, when we were shouting out: Tak dla Polski! ‘Yes’ for Polish membership of the European Union! It is now time, however, not only to look towards the east, but also towards the south, towards the Mediterranean area. We should really be injecting some substance into the Mediterranean dialogue, because up to now it has largely consisted of rhetoric. We should not lose sight of the Mediterranean area, because if we are concerned about border security – and we need to be, both in relation to countries in the east as well as countries in the south – we do not want to erect a new wall. No, we need to help the countries of the Mediterranean area, in North Africa, so that people there, and particularly young people, have opportunities in life. That is why we need to redouble our efforts. I wish you every success at the Thessaloniki Summit. If you take this decision, you will have my group's support. I wish you, the Greek Presidency and all of us in the European Union good luck! (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE