Mr President, my dear Pat, congratulations once again, this time on your new professional début. It is splendid to see you doing what you promised. You are showing yourself to be trustworthy. We have obtained a new Europe today, but we have also had a new Parliament since January. Now, we are to be politicians, not technicians, and you have shown, and will show, us the way. Pat, we are hungry, in fact very hungry, and we have an appetite for change. Our group will support you entirely as you prepare the individual dishes that can satisfy us. However, our group will always have an appetite for change. In Denmark, we have a lovely song that our family often sings. It goes like this: ‘Life’s harvest is in struggle never ceasing...’, ‘...while changeless calm is death’s abode’. Our group has always wished for struggle, for we have an appetite for change. Enlargement is the most important matter we are facing at this time. It is about people rather than about technical devices, budgets, laws and rules. We are clearly the place where people are to meet, and we must make this place work. Our group will do everything to move the tradition on, as we have already done by now inviting members of the national parliaments in the candidate countries to visit us. What is most important, however – and what we have a very great appetite for – are reforms to this House of ours. We have a need for reforms, and not only reforms of our statute – important as those are – but also changes to the way in which we work, so that we can deliver the results our electorate wants to see. That leads me on to my next point, concerning contact with the people. The prerequisite for being in touch with the people is that we should be able to deliver the goods and, more specifically, the goods that people demand. That means being able to put our own house in order and being effective and concentrating on what is really important and what we have some influence upon. In those terms, what is most important are reforms, results and communication, and certainly it is splendid to hear you communicate. You are enthusiastic, you show your feelings, you are colourful in your speech and you use the right words. I would almost go so far as to say that we in effect have a female President, for you employ the feminine side of your personality: imagination and creativity; and that is what we need if we are to reach our citizens. We must be politicians, not technicians. All right, we were unable to have a woman as President, but a man with feminine sides to his personality is no bad thing either. The Convention is what is most important in connection with the Europe of the future. Moreover, it is important that we should not just engage in navel-gazing but try to find solutions to the tasks facing us. Rather than get bogged down in a dispute about whether we are to have a ‘Constitution’, a ‘Basic Treaty’ or a ‘federation’, we should design a system in which there is democratic control over political decisions. When we draw up legislation for our citizens, they must be able to see who are making the decisions, and those who are must be democratically accountable for them. That is the message of the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. We want to see political accountability in Europe. We are “fit for the future”, but our group is also “fit to fight for the new Europe”, as well as being “fit to fight for the future together with yourself”.

Political group: ELDR