Madam President, Mr President of the Commission, the Group of the European People’s Party welcomes this debate and we welcome the fact that the Commission submitted a document so that we could prepare for the debate. We also welcome the conclusions which we find in this document. And we welcome the broad outlines of the speech which President Prodi has just given. We read in the conclusions in the document that the five-year term of office of the Prodi Commission will be a time of major changes. Europe will press ahead with integration; at the same time the Union will start an enlargement process which will, in the end, reunite our continent. A demanding, ambitious, perhaps even prophetic task and we wish you every success, Mr President of the Commission. However, we consider that the present is the basis of the future and we shall only be able to shape the future if we prove our worth in the present. I say that in all earnestness and I have chosen my words carefully. I refer to the current debate on the present conflicts in the European Union. We in the European Union are one Community. We belong together, even when there are problems. Now is not the time to isolate but to unite and to complete together the task of unifying Europe. (Applause) Mr President of the Commission, you have represented and defended the European Parliament time and again over recent weeks. You have seen yourself as the guardian of the Treaties, and that is indeed your role. For that and for the letter to the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria which you mentioned, we expressly respect, acknowledge and support you. (Applause) Mr President of the Commission, our objectives are one and the same: we want a strong Europe in the twenty-first century, a democratic Europe which is able to act. A Europe which defends its values of human dignity and democratic rule of law both internally and to the outside world and, at the same time, looks after its global interests with dignity, patience and convincing self-confidence. Europe’s message, the European Union’s message to the world should not be one of arrogance or even European nationalism, no; it must be one of cooperation, partnership and peaceful development. Globalisation gives us the chance to shape the world, which is becoming smaller and smaller, as a world of peaceful competition and solidarity. Seen in this light, globalisation is more of an opportunity than a danger, more of a coming together than a segregation, more mutual enrichment than separation. But we also know that we can only shape the huge challenge of globalisation together as Europeans. Globalisation is not only an economic process, it is also a cultural process, which is why we say: we want partnership in the world, we do not want the clash of civilisations which many are predicting, we want partnership, a meeting, exchange and peace. But we also say: we want to defend this European Community of tolerance, which is why a common foreign, security and defence policy is so important. Negotiations with six central European countries are starting today, bringing the European family a step closer together. We agree with what you said about the Barcelona process. All the countries in the Mediterranean area must acknowledge human dignity, democracy and the rule of law. For us, the Group of the European People’s Party and the , it is not only the reform of the institutions of the European Union which will be important in the next five years; it is also important that we declare our faith in the single European currency and use the policy of stability as a basis for consolidating the European currency in coming years. We therefore take the uncompromising view that we must maintain a resolute and consistent stability pact. We need structural reforms in the European economy. Most importantly, we need to restore a European economy in which performance pays and people can work as entrepreneurs. It would be Europe’s undoing if we were to end up with just a few multinationals and no future for small and medium-sized businesses in Europe. (Applause) The Commission has an important role to play here by getting a coordinated policy under way with the nation states to reduce taxes so that entrepreneurship pays. We too want to help put Europe on its feet. You spoke in your paper of decentralisation and subsidiarity. We support that. The nations, regions, towns and communities of Europe will be preserved. However, there is a current trend – the “fauna, flora, habitat” directive was quoted as an example – which, in my country at least, creates the impression that associations are bypassing national and regional institutions and submitting programmes to Brussels and that Brussels is then making decisions affecting the property of countless agricultural holdings in the countries of the European Union. I merely mention it as an example of where we must take care and where I would recommend that we try to achieve more legal security in the future. Mr President of the Commission, allow me to close with these words: as the Group of the European People’s Party and the , we have every interest in a strong Commission. If you are persuasive in your actions, we all reap the benefits. In this respect we wish you every success. However, we are also aware of our role as the Commission’s watchdog. If we have the merest suspicion that you are failing to safeguard the law of the European Union, and at present we have no cause for complaint – on the contrary we acknowledge that this is not the case -, but if European law is infringed then we shall fight any such infringement uncompromisingly, precisely because peace in the European Union is founded on this law. We must preserve this law and peace in the European Union if we are to be able to go forth as peacemakers in the world. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE