Mr President, Commissioner de Palacio, good evening. Mr Piétrasanta, I am glad that you have referred to the amendment that we all joined in signing, for that really does show our relative helplessness. On the other hand, though, we also want discussion of these topics to continue. I was pleased, Mr Savary, when you said that you were speaking as a European, as that means that you were not doing so as an expert or as a Frenchman. Here too, what is really at stake is again becoming apparent. The fact is that what we are discussing this evening is nothing less than one of the key issues for twenty-first century Europe. Faced with the crisis in the European economy as a whole, and in particular in the sector we are discussing this evening, a self-supporting and independent Europe must want to energetically promote branches of business, and that will involve reflection on its original strengths. Not merely is it no help, it is also an enormous waste of public funds if, over a period of decades, all the Member States pursue an expenditure policy that, rather than introducing new angles, aims to maintain things they acquired long ago, so that their eyes remain closed to the economic realities. As everyone has stressed this evening, what we quite simply need is modern approaches to Europe’s future, in both the economy and technology. Today, therefore, I would like to go in to bat for a Europe that is more involved in space. The fact is that Europe must not miss the boat in a forward-looking high technology sector in which important jobs can be created, and already have been. So what we need, quite simply, is greater commitment and more support for a policy on space travel. What is called for here is strategic thinking over and above national frontiers, rather than the short-term and short-sighted activity for its own sake that we unfortunately see at present, not least in my homeland. Why space, one might ask. Why should Europe get involved in the far reaches of outer space? Would it not make more sense to invest money on earth? Do we have the money in the first place? My answer is that mastery and exploitation of outer space is the key to success in the world of modern technology. Let me show this by way of some examples. Whether the systems we are working with have to do with communications, navigation or surveillance, satellites have a crucial part to play in it. As we have just heard, entire sectors depend, even today, on the use of satellite technology, and we are already so accustomed to this that we give it no further thought. Money, when invested in such areas of science as meteorology, cartography, transport, medicine, and so on, gives much more by way of a return – something of which Galileo is another example. If, though, there is not constant updating, if we do not do research, if innovations are not constantly being introduced, if financial support is not also made available, the European space sector will languish or disappear altogether. What we need, then, is a new chapter in European space policy, and I very much welcome the positive approaches contained in the Green Paper on the subject. A coherent space policy strategy and precise action lines are indispensable if Europe’s efforts in space are to gain new impetus rather than disappear into a black hole. That, though, is why we decided that now was the time to formulate today’s resolution by Parliament. We must not wait until Europe’s last rocket has had lift-off. If we do, we will no longer be able to keep up with the competition from third countries, and that would be the worst thing that could happen to us. This is a challenge for the ESA Member States; Galileo is on the testbed, and we must get this topic actually incorporated into the treaty that the Convention is working on. That is the greatest and most important challenge. In that sense, I hope that we will, tomorrow, come up with a joint resolution and a joint text that will then, on Thursday, be supported by Parliament as a whole.

Political group: PPE-DE