Mr President, on behalf of the European Socialist Party, I would like to say that we are delighted with the declaration by the President-in-Office of the Council and also with Commissioner Patten’s very pleasant and intelligent statement concerning Governor Rocha Vieira. I have personally been connected with the issue of Macao since the revolution of 25 April. I remember that, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, I met my Chinese counterpart at the UN immediately following the revolution, and he expressed his feelings by saying “for us, Macao is not a colony; therefore, although you are shedding your colonies, do not touch Macao; it will sort itself out in its own time”. The process was actually settled in a fairly cordial manner and in line with the friendship that has traditionally existed between Portugal and China. The joint Sino-Portuguese Declaration – which Commissioner Patten has already referred to here – is a good declaration and contains, on the whole, the broad ideas that should guide Macao for the next fifty years as a special zone, with its own uniqueness in the overall context of China, that is, by respecting the legislation established by the Portuguese in Macao. Macao, as has already been said, has always been a melting pot of cultures and of new meetings of cultures, of religions too, and has always been a territory where peace, tranquillity and coexistence between peoples of the most diverse ethnic backgrounds have reigned. This must continue. The role of the European Union, the Commission and the European Parliament is crucial in this regard, given that, as has already been emphasised, many conventions between the European Union and Macao have been signed, and it is right that over the next fifty years, the European Parliament and our European Institutions should be able to follow Macao’s development, which I think will be a happy one. I also feel honoured that I shall be present in Macao on 20 December. I am sure that the ceremony will be exemplary and I must say that, as a Portuguese Member of this Parliament, I am delighted with the circumstances in which, at the end of the century and of the millennium, Portugal’s cycle of imperialism is coming to a close. Portugal was the first European Empire and will be the last European empire and we might say that the cycle is being closed with a “golden key”, to the extent that, on the one hand, Portugal is conducting a peaceful and friendly handover of the territory of Macao to the People’s Republic of China and, in the same sense, that Timor gained its independence in a fortunate way. These were the ideals of the democratic revolution, which transformed my country in 1974. Portugal is a different country today, a free country, a country in which people coexist peacefully, one in which human rights are respected and whose main objective is peace. It is in the spirit of peace and respect for human rights that we shall be sincere in handing over the administration of Macao to China, as it now falls within China’s competence, in the hope that China will respect the commitments that were signed jointly in the Sino-Portuguese Declaration. I am grateful for the way in which the Governor of Macao was spoken of, whom, moreover, I had the honour of appointing to this post when I was President of Portugal, and I can say that Governor Rocha Vieira is truly a man who has honoured Portugal and who has enabled Portugal to leave the territory of Macao with its head held high and with a clear conscience.

Political group: PSE