Mr President, I would firstly like to thank Mr Harbour for his kind words. I think we have worked together to the very best of our abilities in producing this report. We come from different countries, from different political backgrounds and have different sensibilities. This allowed us to approach the issue with a certain degree of impartiality. The work done by Commissioner Kinnock gave us a starting point. His work included a number of fairly well-balanced proposals seeking to make administration more flexible, to encourage the appointment of good staff and promotion on the basis of merits and qualifications. It was a good basis on which to build. As rapporteurs, we had the opportunity to interview staff representatives and representatives of the institutions. We found the Commission had done good work. In my opinion, this is a good and well thought-out package. It could fully meet the needs of European Union civil servants. I would like to draw the attention of the House to the quality of the work of the civil servants of the European Union. At present, we have 25 000 civil servants who administer a substantial budget on behalf of a Community of 15 countries and a population of 380 million people. The European Union has significantly fewer civil servants than a large city would have, even though the EU budget is probably considerably larger. I feel the European Union civil servants do a sterling job. I do not want to introduce any regulations that would prejudice them or create situations that would lead to labour disputes. Like Mr Harbour, I would like to draw your attention to certain statements made by the Council that appear to seek a penny-pinching cutback in the pension plan, in complete contradiction to proposals forwarded to us by the Commission. That said, I believe the amendments Mr Harbour referred to are reasonable and necessary. He made special mention of the correction coefficients amendment. It makes no sense that when staff retire from working for a European Union institution, they can choose to live in any country, but the value of their pension depends on what country they chose to live in. Like any other administration, the European Union must pay all civil servants the same level of pension. It must allow civil servants to be able to select the country they wish to live in permanently. They may wish to live in a cooler place, a hotter place, somewhere cheaper or somewhere more expensive. We must however ensure they have a free choice. I would also like to mention another clause I feel is quite important. The staff regulations contained an anachronistic rule, similar to an ecclesiastical nihil obstat. This rule stipulated that civil servants could not publish a piece of work without the approval of their superiors. In my opinion, we now live in a society which is sufficiently free and civil servants are sufficiently responsible for this rule to be dispensed with. Civil servants understand what they can write. If they were to publish something that damaged the institutions, we would be able to assess whether it was against the law or merely comments they were free to make. We should not introduce preventative censure measures. Furthermore, I think it would be impossible to implement them. I cannot see Commission civil servants reading the works of more junior members of staff dealing with subjects as banal as the structure of the Commission or the structure of the European Parliament. The report also includes proposals to modify the regulations for people of a different sexual orientation, namely gay men and lesbians. We have sought to prevent civil servants of a different sexual orientation from being denied cohabitation benefits because of their sexual orientation and as a consequence of very strict legal criteria. To this end, we have endeavoured to find a flexible formula. Mr President, I believe the proposals we have put forward are balanced. I believe Parliament should have no difficulty in approving them. I think both the Commission and the Council should recognise that they represent Parliament’s wish to collaborate. I therefore hope that the Council in particular will approve the package, taking account of the amendments we propose. Thank you for your attention, Mr President. I trust that tomorrow’s comments on the subject of the oral question will help to clarify the situation with regard to this threat to the pension plan for European Union civil servants.

Political group: PSE