Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, President Giscard d'Estaing, I am addressing you in your own language because I wish first of all to salute your consistency, together with your campaign for Europe which do not just date from the time since you were a Member of the European Parliament. You were one of the creators of the European Council. You worked for the direct election of the European Parliament. You even gave the name ‘écu’ to the future European currency. Obviously, the name has changed. You were right to choose the tortoise, representing perseverance, as a symbol during the Convention. I had the opportunity to work with you as a Member of the European Parliament, notably when, as an initial experiment, the governments and the Council were opened up as an integral part of the preparatory interinstitutional conference that we set up and that anticipated the Convention before the term existed. Our group thinks that you have done some good work as President of the Convention. Having a tortoise made of jade was felicitous. If it had been a flesh and blood one, you would have been sorry to see it disappear. I am not now going to analyse the work of the Convention, something we shall do in the course of the second September part-session on the basis of the Tsatsos report. Allow me to comment on your quotation from Montesquieu. Indeed, the great historic originality of our work is to devise a democratic structure that goes beyond the nation state in the era of globalisation. Montesquieu is, to be sure, a philosopher who talked about democracy and the nation state. Now, let us not forget that Montesquieu began by writing about the grandeur and decadence of the Rome to which we are now returning. I also salute the fact that you began the draft constitution with a quotation from Pericles’ funeral oration. Indeed, all Europeans, both men and women, could identify with this speech made 2 500 years ago. It shows that we have made our contribution to history, on the pattern laid down by Montesquieu. The Constitution has served Parliament, in its capacity as a legislative power, best, according it its central statute. I share the reservations expressed about the fact that essential areas are still subject to the unanimity rule. Where the executive is concerned, I think that it made sense to have divided the Council into a legislative council and an executive council, but that the solutions proposed at the end of the Convention are not as satisfactory. I concur with a number of the criticisms made by my colleague, Mr Hänsch, concerning the President of the Commission, and I am also in favour of more flexible solutions for revising the Constitution, given the historic situation we are in. I would add, especially, that the spirit of the Convention was already present at the end of the Intergovernmental Conference. Otherwise, I should be at a loss to explain why so many foreign ministers actively participated in the Convention. (Applause) (IT) If I may, Mr President, I will end my speech by addressing Mr Fini and Mr Frattini in Italian. Minister, you said something which I believe to be important: you said that you are going to invite the European Parliament to take part in the Intergovernmental Conference. This, however, needs to be done without delay, for the IGC starts in a month’s time. It is not enough just to make an announcement of this kind. Moreover, you added that you intend to invite Mr Giscard d’Estaing and the Vice-Chairmen. In my opinion, Mr Giscard d’Estaing and the Vice-Chairmen must not be made redundant, consigned to technical unemployment, for they can make a valuable contribution. In any case, I would point out that this is the first opportunity that the citizens, the people, have had to take part in the process of drafting the Constitution. Therefore, when we go to Rome, now, we must not set up a conclave behind closed doors, leaving the people outside to wait for the white smoke. This is not the democratic method that we Europeans want. (Applause) Mr President, I will therefore reiterate a proposal which I have already made many times and which was adopted by the European Parliament in July. I believe that this Intergovernmental Conference must be open. I will not say it must be transparent, for I believe that you have gone a little too far for that. As regards the role of the European Parliament, I would reiterate our proposal: the Conference president must report to Parliament on a monthly basis, and, in my view, Mr President, it would be extremely sensible to invite all the members of the Convention and the representatives of the national parliaments to attend meetings of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, in order to ensure that, although the work of the Convention is now over, the spirit of the Convention and a more transparent working method can go hand in hand at the Intergovernmental Conference and a Constitution for all Europeans can be achieved. (Applause)

Political group: PSE