Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my group welcomes active support for the peace process in Macedonia. For the very first time over recent months we have seen the Council and Commission starting to act in concert in the case of the former Yugoslavia; everyone has the same take on the situation and we have joint action as a result. We just have to bear in mind that we cannot turn our back on this country once the fighting abates and the shooting stops. On the contrary, we must monitor the situation continuously and closely, by which I mean on the ground. The European Parliament has acted consistently since 1993. We have constantly discussed all the problems with our Macedonian counterparts and the Macedonian government. We have called on them time and again not to underestimate the simmering ethnic conflict and to do everything to prevent such conflict from breaking out. For years little was done and that is a pity. If the truth be told, this problem was criminally neglected for years. But now this last government has got down to business over the last two and a half years and has done much to help the Albanian people and get things moving. And then, just when we have important ministers of Albanian origin with important portfolios, just when a real solution has been found to the question of Albanian education and the problem of Tetovo University, at that precise moment, hostilities break out. And we simply have to concede that they have been imported from outside. I am surprised that none of the previous speakers, from either the Council or the Commission, reminded us that these hostilities were imported from outside. That is why we now need to look at the situation outside the country. Elections were held in Kosovo last year. If elections had been held in Kosovo this spring, we would probably have been able to prevent this unrest in the neighbouring country. But we have no proof of that. Now we have a situation in which Mr Hekkerup, without talking to us here in Parliament – I do not know if he has spoken to the Commission, but he has certainly never spoken to us; we pay for the administration of UNMIK, we are the main payers, but no-one asks us what should be done down there – is designing a constitution which neither the Serbs nor the Albanians support 100%. It may well be a very good constitution. But if a constitution is announced in May and a vote is held on it in November, that gives seven months for the extremists to again find plenty of cause for unrest. It is just not on. You have to learn from your mistakes. Perhaps they should have asked their counterparts in the European Parliament. We could have told them. So I think that mistakes were made. We must just hope that the elections can still be brought forward. Now back to Macedonia. The visitors in the gallery will have noticed that it says 'Situation ARYM' up there. In English it would be 'Situation FYROM'. This is none other than the country of Macedonia, whose neighbours are refusing it its name. It is the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. FYROM and ARYM are in fact temporary aids and should soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. We welcome the formation of the all-party coalition and hope that it will succeed in moving towards ethnic cohabitation. We hope that none of the parties will pursue separatist or nationalistic agendas. So I think we are on the right course here. I take up the Council's suggestion. We shall try to take a delegation to Skopje before the summer.

Political group: PPE-DE