Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the interinstitutional agreement which we are talking about is the result of the negotiations within the high-level working party formed by representatives of Parliament, the Commission and the Council Presidency. Together with Mr Swoboda, Mr Clegg and Mrs Frassoni, I feel that we must thank the High Level Technical Group which helped us in our work, but I would, of course, also like to mention the contribution made by the politicians to the outcome achieved: an agreement which – although, as Mrs Frassoni said just now, it certainly fails to satisfy everybody in Parliament – I believe is an extremely important compromise, which we must acknowledge this evening in this House. We worked on the basis of the mandate given to us by the Conference of Presidents on 4 July, and I believe I can say that we adhered firmly to this brief and to this will, which, together with the President of the European Parliament, we often witnessed in individual and delegation meetings. The objectives set down in the mandate concerned adequate guarantees regarding Parliament’s rights as a legislative authority, complete transparency during the legislative procedure and the choice of innovative solutions conducive to more effective and responsible law-making. In short, Parliament’s aim was to enhance democratic legitimacy and the quality of Community legislation, which is something I believe we all want. Alongside the negotiations, the European Commission adopted a series of documents on simplifying and improving legislation, on which the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market expressed its opinion by adopting Mr Medina Ortega’s report, which you have just heard presented. The draft interinstitutional agreement reasonably fulfils both the Conference of Presidents’ mandate and the guidelines that are contained in Mr Ortega’s report. Furthermore, although we used the Treaty as a reference – our reference was, of course, the Treaty – the agreement is in line with the draft Constitutional Treaty that was adopted by the Convention and which is being debated in the IGC. I would like to mention briefly that we have resolved some extremely important issues: the legislative planning, coordination of legislative work between the institutions; the Council informing Parliament on both the annual and the multiannual draft strategic programme; the presence of the Council in committees – in committees as well as in the House, of course – which I feel is important for the exchange of views necessary for Parliament’s work, the Commission commits to participate regularly in the work of the committees, preferably at ministerial level, but, in any case, at the highest level appropriate and at an accountable level. As regards transparency, there is confirmation of the importance of informing the public about the progress of legislative work, as the Convention recognised to some extent; the choice of form for legislative acts, which the Convention also includes in the proportionality principle, while the monopoly of the right of initiative conferred on the Commission – I want to make this clear to Parliament – cannot give it exclusive responsibility for the choice of form for a legislative act. Article 12 lays down that the Commission must take into account recommendations from the other institutions; with regard to co-regulation, on the most sensitive issue of call-back – to which Mrs Frassoni attaches great importance – I would point out that Parliament has already adopted the Wallis report to this end; I believe that we have made great progress in this area, as well as in terms of self-regulation, control and giving economic operators and the social partners the possibility of adopting guidelines in this field; the issue of comitology, impact assessment, timeframes for implementation and transposal. I cannot dwell on this any further but I would like to say, in conclusion, that we made sure that the agreement did not jeopardise the future role of Parliament, as Mr Cox has told us at each stage. Not only have we not compromised Parliament’s role, but I believe that we have enhanced the European Parliament – and this is an important fact that remains in this term of office – as a legislative body in the interinstitutional balance of powers and in the interinstitutional agreement. IN THE CHAIR: MR PUERTAVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE