Mr President, firstly, on behalf of the Group of the , I would like to express my support for the Dimitrakopoulos/Leinen report and, furthermore, thank the Portuguese Presidency for their positive attitude towards the incorporation of Parliament into the Intergovernmental Conference. This report is of great value and I therefore believe we should support it today by a majority in this Parliament, because this is an opportunity for a completely open debate on the great issues still facing us in Europe. This debate is going on between political and national groups in different Member States. Please allow me to make a correction, Mr President: there are no large and small countries here. Here we must consider ourselves to be small. In the past, the countries in Europe which considered themselves to be large tried to impose their hegemony by force. Here were are all amongst small countries, especially given the challenge of globalisation. I believe this should be an important element in our coexistence. In European Parliament debates, political groups, citizens of different countries and diverse interests and prejudices come into play and this allows us to be aware of when we touch a nerve and of when it is necessary for us to take special care in what we do. Therefore, this is an important debate and I believe the Council should take account of the position we take. Secondly, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, I believe we should also try to introduce some vision and some idealism into this debate. I have always been against the idea that we had to deal with the ‘ overs’ from Amsterdam. overs are thrown in the bin. These are clear and fundamental challenges, which refer to and are linked to the membership of the Commission, the power of the President, fair contributions by the Member States and such important questions as closer cooperation, majority voting and – a vital issue – the Charter of Fundamental Rights. I say this particularly in view of the crisis which we have seen in a Member State as a result of the presence of a party whose fundamental values are contrary to the community of values which we hold here. A final consideration: Commissioner Barnier has said that, before the end of the Conference, we must resolve certain problems relating to the chain of command. Mr President, in relation to the appeal to public opinion which we are making, I believe we must clearly affirm the principles of democracy and transparency and also the chain of command. We must not allow a situation where, while we are discussing this, a kind of Loch Ness monster reappears every month in the press. I understand the journalists, but we cannot allow a situation where crises are created by certain anonymous officials, who are frustrated mandarins, and certain ambassadors, who seem to behave like a Praetorian Guard, and who do not hesitate to make anonymous declarations in the press. Here, the only risk involved in democracy is the risk taken in elections. This is the risk taken by Minister Gama, Commissioner Barnier and by all of us. However, here in the gossip shops of Brussels we create a situation and certain centres of power which do not correspond to the principles of democracy and transparency, which are precisely the principles which we have to strengthen in this Intergovernmental Conference. I believe that it is important for all of the institutions to confront this issue responsibly. If not, the Intergovernmental Conference will not have been a success for our future. (Applause)

Political group: PSE