Mr President, we have spoken today about the importance and unimportance of reports. I believe this is an important report, and I am therefore proud and happy that it is to be debated and voted upon on a Friday, for Friday is a working day like any other. I am of the view that, as a European Parliament, we can also be proud of the fact that we have got the idea of a European Police College under way. As you know, the idea came about in 1995 at a professional convention in Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria and was unanimously adopted in 1998 by this Parliament in the context of a report on internal security and eastward enlargement. At the time, we were concerned with the important matter, which we are finding ever more pressing, of not only having to get the applicant countries ready economically for accession but also of having to ensure, above all, that the framework conditions in terms of democracy, constitutionality and administration were right. On reading the latest progress reports, we note that there has been a considerable improvement in the way in which the legislation has been transposed. However, the way in which the legislation is applied in the applicant countries is still problematic because it is huge task, after decades of dictatorship, to construct new police forces, new systems of justice and new public prosecution authorities. In the report we produced at that time, we said that, in those countries which had found their way to democracy through their own efforts, we wanted, after decades of police States, to see the training of police who did not only genuinely accept the standards of European democracy but were also prepared to act in partnership. That is how the idea of a European Police College for the Member States of the European Union and for the applicant countries arose. This idea of Parliament's was then adopted at the Tampere Summit, and I am very grateful to the Council for adopting this project, originated by Parliament, as its own. I am especially grateful to Commissioner Vitorino who has shown his vigorous commitment to a European Police College, something which also finds expression in the fact that the Portuguese government, which thinks along similar lines to himself, has thankfully seized this initiative. In accordance with the will of the Council and of that of this Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, the European Police College is to become a reality as early as next year, more precisely as part of a network of national police training institutes with a joint remit, joint leadership and joint training programmes. However, we want this only to be a first step and we want an actual Police College to be set up within no more than two or three years. In this context, I should like to refer to a valuable comment by the French Presidency of the Council which said that we need a common, actually existing Police College of this kind in order to create a European culture of police training. Joint training of this kind is urgently needed when it comes to protecting external borders and combating cross-border crime and also when it comes to applying human rights standards in the European Union. It also has very wide support from police trade unions and professional associations. They know that, in the border area between the current EU and the applicant countries, such as in Eastern Bavaria, a great many towns have already asked for such a Police College. I am of the view, however, that it is still too early to make a decision on the matter. Naturally, that would be the best place for it to be located. It is now firstly a question, however, of actually creating this Police College, and all political forces are together helping to achieve this goal. I would thank the Bavarian and German ministers of the interior, as well as former Austrian Minister of the Interior Schlögel, who together made this possible back in Tampere. I believe this is a one-off opportunity to create a Europe in practical terms, namely a constitutional Europe that does not just exist in some documents or other but finds expression on an everyday basis. As the European Parliament, we can be proud that this is one of our own ideas and initiatives, which is to become a reality in just a few months’ time. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE