Mr President, this is not the best time to debate the Lamassoure report. This is because it is very late and, secondly, because the final of the Champions League is being played and Real Madrid – I am sorry, Mrs Randzio-Plath, Mrs Schroedter – are beating Bayer Leverkusen. Oh, no! Bayer have equalised. No-one is perfect. This is bad news, because I was so happy and now the score is one all. Yet this is also a good time to debate this report, because it is extremely important. I would firstly like to pay homage to Mr Lamassoure, who is not only a highly intelligent rapporteur, but also a rapporteur from the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, but who, although he has not said so himself, has seen every single article from his original proposal amended. This, in itself, is great proof of his flexibility and political capacity. Look at him, he even seems cheerful. He could have been very angry at all the changes that have been made – but no – he is happy, because, at the end of the day, the Lamassoure report characterises a solid position adopted by Parliament on an enormously difficult and complicated issue, which causes a great deal of conflict. I believe, Mr President, that in addition to Mr Lamassoure’s valour in having drawn up this report, we have achieved something very important, which is to have a Parliament position on this issue, a position which, additionally, brings together what Parliament has been advocating for fifty years, which in my opinion, is very important. In the Lamassoure report, we are defending the competences allocated to the EU. The rapporteur states this very clearly. We have decided that the European Union must enjoy only the competences allocated to it by the Treaties and no others, which means that we are against this idea of a catalogue of competences, which would only serve to add rigidity to the Union’s competences. We are in favour of a flexible interpretation and of the idea that, at any moment, through the mechanisms he has upheld, from Article No 308 and other Articles from the Treaty, Article No 99 specifically, we can accommodate the needs of the Union and the aspirations of its citizens. Secondly, I believe that the Lamassoure report also puts forward a very solid position on one of the great issues in the Convention, the control of subsidiarity. I believe that one of the main issues in the debate on the Convention will be how to control subsidiarity, for, as the rapporteur has very clearly stated, the great majority of competences are competences shared between the Union and the Member States. Therefore, to know at which moment we have to use one and at which the other will be the key to keeping Europe running at the rhythm its citizens require. I believe that we also have a very solid position in this regard. I am going to make a declaration, because I know that some fellow Members still have doubts, in favour of the position taken by Alain Lamassoure: I believe the control of subsidiarity should be exercised by the body within whose competence it falls to make proposals – in other words – the European Commission. I believe that the European Commission must have the right of initiative and that it must take charge of subsidiarity. However, I believe that, if there are any discrepancies, we need to find a way to resolve them, and the way to do this is not through a political body or some sort of subsidiarity chamber, but through a system similar to the one established by the French Constitution for the French Constitutional Council, in which a month is given for the issue to be resolved. It seems to me that this is a solid, principled position: control by the Commission, with a Constitutional Council, and I believe that we should defend this position. Finally, Mr President, I believe that the Lamassoure proposal is ambitious. There is a William Faulkner character who I like very much and am very fond of, who says that we have to have very ambitious dreams, so that, as we go through life chasing these dreams, we know where we stand in relation to them. I believe that the Lamassoure report allows this and that all our hopes and dreams are also permitted. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE