Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the implementation of the Culture 2000 programme has been a constant concern of the parliamentary committee of which I am a member. My colleagues and I have attempted, on the one hand, to monitor the various fronts on which the programme is being developed and the methodology or methodologies that have been adopted for its implementation; on the other hand, we have sought to make soundings amongst our electors and amongst European cultural agents and operators in general, so as to gauge the reactions provoked by the programme and, most importantly, so that we can assess its results. This legislature is now almost halfway through and the framework programme has also already reached almost half of its intended duration. The Commission will soon have to revise it, particularly in view of the financial shortcomings it has experienced from the very beginning, which are being felt more and more and which the President has just mentioned. It is also becoming necessary for all of us to start thinking about ‘post-Culture 2000’, in other words, about the programme that will follow the current one and which will have to take account of its successes and failures. The report that I am presenting reflects the deeply and widely held opinion of all the members of the parliamentary committee who voted for it. Since this is a follow-up report, your rapporteur deliberately sought to promote and stimulate the tabling of amendments, because these would be likely to add further issues relevant to the study. Consequently, almost all of the amendments tabled were incorporated into the text. The report therefore reflects the many different shades of opinion that were expressed in the parliamentary committee and very accurately conveys the reactions of our electors. A report of this nature cannot fail to reaffirm the high-minded objectives of Culture 2000 and its role in the construction of European citizenship and in the defence of cultural diversity and of linguistic pluralism. It must also reaffirm the inspirational and high-minded principles which the Programme has obeyed since its conception, which cannot, for any reason, be ignored at the implementation stage. Both these principles and those objectives must be seen as fundamental building blocks for European integration and for the development of the democratic citizenship that all citizens of the Union enjoy. Since these have been carefully considered, approved and signed up to, not only by this House, but also by the Council and the Commission, there is no reason for these positions to be changed. These are lines of cultural policy that are of importance to all Member States and, with the prospect of enlargement, to all Europeans. They are about constructing the European cultural area as an area crucial to freedom and to freedoms. Lastly, Mr President, I should like to ask Commissioner Reding to view this report as a tool which could help the Commission to more effectively undertake the tasks entrusted to it in this field; its present tasks, now that the Programme has reached its halfway stage, and its future tasks, as long as the experience it has gained – as I said – can lead to an even better programme following on from Culture 2000. This House’s vote will therefore mark an important milestone in cooperation between Parliament and the Commission. The Culture 2000 programme will also provide the helping hand which the Commissioner mentioned a few moments ago with regard to the Socrates Programme.

Political group: PPE-DE