Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, these are grave times. The chronicle of a war foretold is becoming reality. On behalf of my group, the Socialist Group, I profoundly regret the failure of the peaceful approach and I hope that there is no mass destruction of the civilian population, bringing a trail of death and destruction to a population a half of which is under fifteen years old. The Iraqi people are suffering a twin punishment: the punishment it suffers under Saddam Hussein, and the additional punishment of an unjust war. In the face of this extremely serious situation, we once again call on the governments of the Member States of our Union and of its future members not to participate in a unilateral pre-emptive war which is morally and legally dubious and which is contrary to the wishes of the majority of Europeans. (Applause from the left) Our group would like once again to call on the European Council to meet today to increase its efforts, to overcome the current division and to find a single European voice. Our Union is a community of values governed by law and the Member States are obliged to abide by the solidarity and mutual commitments laid down in the Treaties and which lie behind the CFSP. Our current situation is really very difficult. The European Union is divided, the United Nations is in deadlock and we are witnessing the philosophy of the unavoidable war. However, we must not indulge in pessimism or defeatism. Mr Michel Rocard has rightly said that none of our governments questions that Saddam Hussein is a dangerous war criminal, who in the past has sought to acquire weapons of mass destruction by any possible means, that his word and his signature cannot inspire confidence and that the dictator must be subjected to the justice of the International Criminal Court – something which this Parliament voted for in January with the opposition of the . This is something we must persevere with. The difference between us is in the rhythm and the means. In other words, we must be able to ask ourselves why we Europeans have become so radically divided. And that is our responsibility. And in this regard I share the view of the President of the , Robin Cook, who said in the House of Commons that our interests are better protected by means of multilateral agreements and by a world order governed by rules rather than by unilateral actions. (Applause from the left) Ladies and gentlemen, the question is not whether or not we are friends of the United States. We are loyal partners and not servants. (Applause from the left) The difference at the moment is that we do not share the Bush Administration’s doctrine of pre-emptive attack. And I do not accept that Jimmy Carter is any less American because he argues that this war is unjust. That is absolutely absurd. (Applause from the left) And there is a further element, and that is that the current United States administration wishes to redraw the entire map of the Middle East, a century after the two European colonial powers – Great Britain and France – carved up the Middle East with a ruler and pen, and one only needs to look at the map. There is no place for this in today’s world. And what is absolutely obscene is that we are told, as we all know, that the market for the reconstruction of Iraq is already shared out – and at the head of the queue is the company which was presided over by the Vice-President of the United States until two years ago. This is unacceptable. Commissioner, my group will vote for humanitarian aid administered by civilians in Iraq. With regard to reconstruction, we will have to discuss this, but it should not fall to us to pay for the damage caused by others, as is happening for example in the case of Palestine. (Applause from the left) This is therefore a responsibility for the Commission. And if you will allow me: I appreciate that, following 11 September, there is fear in the United States, but a great American, a great American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, at the moment when he launched the United States into the noble cause of liberating Europe – with the exception of my country unfortunately – said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And therefore we cannot live in fear and terror. We must live in a positive way. And when we call for dialogue with other cultures, I must say to you, Mr Poettering, that dialogue with Islam – not only with the Arab people – must be based on something positive, and the great Arab poet from my country, from Cordoba, Ibn-Hamz de Córdoba, said rightly that the flower of war is infertile, and that is something we must bear very much in mind. (Applause from the left) Dialogue cannot begin on the basis of threats and war. Allow me to add, in relation to what happened in the Security Council – and there are many countries which have refused to bow to pressure – that, as Robin Cook has also said, we cannot ignore the essential fact, and that is that, if we really believe in an international community based on binding rules and institutions, we cannot simply forget about them when their results do not suit us. This is an essential point. If we believe in the United Nations, we must support it and we must strengthen it. We cannot unilaterally take the responsibility of saying that what has been done so far makes no sense. If we all want peace, if we are against bloodthirsty tyrants, if we are in favour of an active policy of destroying weapons of mass destruction, we must be able, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, to unite ourselves once again, and what my group respectfully asks is that you deliver this message, this demand, supported by millions of our fellow European citizens, so that the European Council speaks clearly, and so that we are capable of uniting and also of seriously relaunching the Middle East peace process – which is absolutely essential – and ensuring our future as a strong, consolidated and capable European Union in our own eyes and in the eyes of the world. (Applause from the left)

Political group: PSE