Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in the history of European integration there are certain moments that can be considered as points of historic change, and this is one of them, because the adoption of the Charter by Parliament will be one more step towards realising the dreams and plans of the founding fathers. I would like to remind you that the first time that the declaration of rights was discussed was at the Congress of Europe in The Hague in 1948, and that was the origin of the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Now, as the European Union, we are once again affirming that this is a community of values. We have given real substance to European citizenship, which is recognised in the Treaty on European Union, and we have consolidated our area, not only as an internal market, but also as a legal area in which fundamental human rights are recognised. For s and social democrats from across Europe, the adoption of the Charter also represents the fulfilment of a commitment to our electorate; we contested the elections with a manifesto containing twenty-one priorities, and a fundamental one among them was to push for a European Charter of Rights in order to enshrine the fundamental civil, economic, social and cultural rights of the citizens of the Union. The European Summit in Cologne, under the German Presidency of Chancellor Schröder, proposed specifically on the one hand, the outline, which became a Convention and, on the other hand, that this Charter should be drawn up. It gave the Convention a mandate and nominated a former President of Germany, Roman Herzog, as chairman of this body. I think that this needs to be highlighted today because the work that we have carried out is not the exclusive property of any political family, and this gesture does credit to the German Presidency at the time and shows that we all need to move forward together in achieving fundamental values. I think that we have also done this in the European Parliament. I have had the opportunity to express my admiration for the work carried out by Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, as chairman of the European Parliament delegation. I would also like to point out the crucial role played by my colleague Mrs Pervenche Berès, when she led the delegation from the Group of the . I think that we can all be proud of this success, which is a shared one. Today Europe is more than just a common market, and what is more we have a fundamental piece of what should be a future constitution. However, despite all the efforts that have been made, there is still a fundamental step that we need to take in order to feel satisfied – and I say this thinking about the Nice Summit – which is the last point mentioned by the President-in-Office of the Council: the inclusion of the Charter in Article 6 of the Treaty. I think that, apart from the repeated personal support of the President-in-Office of the Council, there is a series of factors in favour of this. Currently, the majority of Heads of State and Government belong to our political family. Others do not, but they are in favour of this inclusion and of a reformed and democratic Europe. The Charter provides the Union with an essential legitimacy as a community of values, and we need to emphasise this, because we have also experienced events that show that Article 7 needs to have a much more solid support. Our governments need to obtain tangible results in Nice that they can offer to our citizens – institutional matters are important but, as the President-in-Office of the Council and the Commissioner are well aware, they are difficult to sell to public opinion. The Charter also sets out the Copenhagen criteria, which we consider to be fundamental in the membership negotiations. I would also say, thinking about the countries that are negotiating with us, that it also offers them guarantees with regard to us; that is to say, it is not merely a declaration, but a factor that fits perfectly into the negotiation process. Therefore, my Group still thinks that it is absolutely essential to include a reference to the Charter in Article 6(2) of the Treaty. As I believe that the President-in-Office of the Council is going to have a very busy weekend with the next meeting, I ask him to pass on a message to that meeting, so that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs can pass it on to the Heads of Government. It is as follows: if the European Council in Nice does not succeed in integrating the Charter in this way, I am afraid that the European Parliament will have difficulty approving the reform of the Treaties. I think that this is a positive message that the President-in-Office of the Council must give to his colleagues, because we still have time to include the Charter in Article 6 of the Treaties. After Nice we will be able to start talking about the European constitution. For now, the important thing is for this stage to be consolidated. This is our proposal.

Political group: PSE