Mr President, for the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party, the key test of Seville was the agreement on immigration and asylum which elevated discussion beyond the search for cheap newspaper headlines and into the core of the challenge. A casual reader of the newspapers in the run-up to Seville might have believed that the Prime Minister of Spain was playing Don José to Tony Blair's Carmen in a passionate but deadly delusion about using development aid as a weapon in the crackdown on illegal migrants. We, therefore, welcome the success of Prime Minister Verhofstadt and others in redressing the balance of the European Council's draft conclusions. In particular we are pleased that the Council recalled the importance of economic cooperation, free trade, development aid and conflict prevention in tackling the causes of illegal immigration. I applaud the Council's emphasis on providing incentives to developing countries to cooperate in the management of migration flows rather than on suspending development aid for non-cooperation. However, rather than simply setting new targets for achieving progress on immigration and asylum, Heads of State and Government would do better to stop clogging up the decision-making process with national initiatives and to back Commission proposals under the Community method. That means using qualified majority voting to ensure that decisions can be taken. Concerning the proposals for reform of the proceedings of the Council, it is all very well for Heads of State and Government to talk about introducing greater transparency into the workings of the Council. However, this will not be achieved merely by allowing cameras into the room for a ritual round-table debate and for the votes. We need to achieve real transparency by giving access to Council documents on the Internet, from when they are first discussed by officials right up to ministerial level. It is disgraceful that Council officials in the Secretariat are refusing to make Room documents and unnumbered documents publicly available. A rationalisation of the number of Councils is no doubt called for, but it would be far better for this to be done in conjunction – as the President of the Commission said – with similar moves in Parliament and in the Commission so that lines of accountability and responsibility are clear. I am also concerned that the abolition of the Development Council could be seen as a downgrading of the Union's role in development assistance, which must not be allowed to happen. Following the Barcelona Summit, I warned in this Chamber of the danger of a credibility gap opening up if the ambitious targets set for economic reform were not implemented. In particular I called for progress to be made towards an integrated financial services market. I, therefore, warmly congratulate the Spanish Presidency on securing a deal on the pensions directive – which had been blocked in Council since July of last year – as well as agreement on the market abuse directive, because behind the sound and fury over illegal immigration it is steady progress on technical but vital issues such as these which show the worth of a presidency. (Applause)

Political group: ELDR