Mr President, since I am leaving Parliament this is my last speech and I would like to take this occasion to thank everyone who has helped me here over the past five years, in particular my own staff, my assistants and the secretariat of the Committee on Budgetary Control. I would like to congratulate the Secretary-General on the result that we are hopefully going to deliver tomorrow, which would be a positive discharge for the European Parliament. The cooperation has been excellent and the Secretary-General, together with all his staff, has done a very good job of running the Parliament over the last five years in the face of mounting challenges, not least of which is enlargement. The criticism contained in my report is not aimed at Parliament's staff or the Secretary-General. My criticism is aimed at us, the politicians, who give political direction to Parliament. In 1999, I was elected in the Netherlands with a very low turnout of just 29%. The main reason why people did not go and vote in the European elections was that they did not have faith in the EU institutions. This is bad in itself, but it is also a great danger to European integration because if people do not have faith in the institutions it is very unlikely that they will support further steps in European integration. My mission for the last five years has been to try to reform the institutions to make them more legitimate and credible in the eyes of our citizens. We have come a long way, in particular with regard to the European Commission. Here I would like to pay tribute to Commissioner Schreyer and her colleagues who have done a great job over the last five years, again in the face of very difficult challenges. Parliament has made progress. People who say that this institution is just a 'gravy train' are wrong. We have made excellent progress in modernising the institution, in modernising the administration and even the rules governing Members. But two big eyesores remain. One is our system of expenses, which is still not based on the actual costs incurred. This system is indefensible to the outside world. No matter how big the differences in salary between MEPs from different countries, and no matter how unfair that is – especially when the new Member States come in – we cannot continue to justify this system. The vote tomorrow will be an opportunity for this House to show that we are in touch with the real world, that we are prepared to put our own House in order and to clean up our act. The second question concerns Strasbourg. This is a beautiful Assembly and an even more beautiful city, but we should not meet here for only four days per week. The Commission and the Council are based in Brussels. If we are to be a credible democratic assembly, defending the interests of the citizens of Europe, then we should be where the other powerful institutions are – with the Council and the Commission. It was natural to come to Strasbourg when this Parliament was still a part-time Parliament, when the memories of the Second World War were still fresh and we needed a symbol of reconciliation. But today Europe's citizens are not looking for signs of reconciliation between France and Germany. I do not believe that anyone doubts those two countries get on together – perhaps a little too well at times! The citizens are looking for efficient, modern institutions that are capable of managing European integration and the policies we have agreed together. Without a doubt, the time is right for a move to Brussels. Clearly we must find a purpose for Strasbourg. It has been built on European institutions and we must give them something in return. We have suggested the idea of the first European university. The buildings would be perfect for that. Another suggestion is to let the European Council meet here rather than in Brussels. These are the key issues that we need to address. I hope that tomorrow we will also give President Cox a mandate to go to the Intergovernmental Conference and say that we need to change the Treaty in this respect. We need to give Parliament the right to decide its own seat. Today a number of MEPs held a press conference organised by the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform. We signed a reform pledge which commits the signatories to the reform of our expenses system and to work for a single seat for Parliament in Brussels. I hope that when we vote tomorrow we will all sign this pledge by voting for the amendments that have been tabled by a number of Groups. I am grateful to them for having done so.

Political group: PSE