Madam President, I will begin by thanking the rapporteur, Mr Watson, in particular, and naturally all the members of the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms, for their work, their cooperation and their efforts on this report which today we are going to firstly study and support, and then vote for. Ladies and gentlemen, I feel happy today as a Basque, as a Spaniard and as a European. I am happy because Europe has understood that when ETA violates human rights, when organised Basque fascism commits xenophobic crime and ideological cleansing, when this terrorist organisation, which in Spain today represents the final dying embers of Franco’s legacy, continues to operate, based within Europe itself, it is not a problem for the direct victims, those of us who live with escorts, those who cannot appear on electoral lists, those who have to overcome fear in order to write daily or in order to talk to the media. The problem is for Europe. It is a problem for European democracy as a whole. Therefore, European democracy is also acting as a whole and is reacting by uniting in the battle against terrorism. I feel happy because Europe has understood that it is time to go beyond words, beyond fine statements, beyond bilateral cooperation, though this is important. It has long been time to mobilise the instruments necessary to bring the criminals, the terrorists, the fascists, to justice, to finally arrest the criminals, to implement all the necessary instruments which will make the European democratic institutions more effective in achieving this end. It also makes me happy to see that Europe has discovered that, when criminals are at liberty, when organised criminals are attacking human rights, freedoms and lives of citizens, the first political decision that must be taken is to make it possible for the criminals to be brought to justice. We do everything we have to do to ensure that all citizens live in freedom, regardless of their ideology, their beliefs, their origin, their surnames, their native culture, and everything we have to do to defend – if you will allow me – the very concept behind European citizenship: human rights. The Watson report and its recommendations are not just a commitment against ETA: they are a commitment to democracy. The aim is to beat ETA, but the fundamental commitment is to defend democracy throughout the whole of Europe. To defend the idea that everywhere in Europe people may live in freedom, in plurality, and may live together. And in one place in Europe, in the Basque Country and in Spain, the fascist organisation ETA is jeopardising that coexistence and plurality. It is said that there will be operative problems, that some countries will have problems harmonising their legislations. President Verhofstadt said here, during his first intervention, that those who do not believe in utopia do not deserve to be called Europeans. I believe that a political will which has been capable of introducing a single currency will be capable of also introducing single instruments to fight terrorism. But please allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to end by making a comment in my capacity not just as a European, but as a Basque and a Spaniard. As a Basque and a Spaniard, as the daughter of a generation of Spanish democratic citizens who lost the war against Franco and who resisted forty years of dictatorship, I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that through this act today, Europe is performing an act of historical reparation, because for many years, for a long time, we Spanish democrats have felt a sense of isolation, of indifference and distance from Europe. We often felt it during Franco’s time and we have often felt it – I can assure you – during these years of fighting the fascism of ETA, of fighting for democracy and freedom. Today the debt of indifference is being paid off and I feel proud to share this moment with you. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank you as a Basque for this decision. I would like to thank you in my name but above all in the name of many ordinary anonymous people, who every day fight for freedom, who overcome fear in order to appear on the electoral lists, who overcome fear in order to write, and in the name of those people who cannot talk because ETA has silenced their voices for good. On behalf of all of them, thank you very much and congratulations on this act today. (Applause)

Political group: PSE