Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I think very highly of my colleague Mr Poettering, the new Chairman of the new, hard to pronounce group in this House. I am nevertheless extremely concerned by his speech, concerned because it expressed more than the fact that he represents the largest group and forged an alliance with the Liberals for the election of the President of this House. But if this pact is supposed to be one which is somehow intended to strike terror into the hearts of, or rather, create difficulties for, the governments led by Social Democrats, then Mr Poettering and his group should be made aware that this doesn't just create difficulties for Social Democrat-led governments, nor does it only create difficulties for governments like that of Austria, which also includes a Conservative party and a Christian People's party, but it causes difficulties for the process of European unification. On behalf of my group I would also like to make very clear at this point that we will not be judging the Commission and the new Commissioners on their party political affiliations, but on the skill, clarity and correctness of their past and present stances, and we believe that these must be the only criteria by which to judge them. I now come to the fundamental aspects of the Presidency. In many respects, it was a successful Presidency, I would like to acknowledge that quite clearly, certainly as far as Agenda 2000 is concerned and the furthering of the enlargement process, and also concerning the difficult decisions relating to the Balkans and security policy. I would especially like to give my personal thanks not only to the Chancellor, but also to the Foreign Minister, to the President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Fischer, who is present today, for doing everything in his power to bring us out of this difficult state of armed conflict. Opinions on whether the war was justified, or whether it could have been prevented, vary throughout this House, but the German Presidency, and I would like to make particular mention of the Foreign Minister at this point, managed to act on the basis of a clear position with regard to the crimes of Milosevic's regime, but also on the basis of a clear position whose most ardent wish was for peace in the Balkans. It was handled well and properly, and that deserves distinct recognition. In this respect, and since security policy comes up for discussion here again and again, I would like to clearly emphasise the following: security policy is not about militarisation of the European Union. It is about employing all the instruments of security policy to take whatever preventative measures can be taken, and I have said repeatedly that many opportunities for taking preventative action have been missed in past years, and no group, nor any Presidency can claim here that they did everything possible to prevent this war. Therefore, we must now support all the forces in Serbia and Yugoslavia which are striving for a new political system, which are standing up for democracy, for human rights, for respect for minorities. This is the only chance of success. The second thing, and this is extremely important, is that we must enable all of those who are returning – and thank God there are so many returning, it was also the right decision to keep the refugees in the region where possible – to get through the winter in conditions which are acceptable for human beings. That is why the money for this must quickly be made available, and the appropriate organisation must be established, so that the largest part of our work does not go on ensuring that there is co-ordination between one organisation and another, but is devoted to giving substantial help to the Balkans, so that the Balkans will finally become a peaceful region in Europe.

Political group: PSE