Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first of all like to extend our thanks to Mr Caudron, our rapporteur, as well as to our shadow rapporteurs. Mr Caudron was very willing to listen to our views and it was a pleasure for us to work with him in drawing up the Sixth Framework Programme. As far as the Council is concerned, I must also thank the Belgian Presidency, represented by Mr de Donnea, who worked hard to include the proposals that Parliament, in particular, desired, and I would also thank the current Spanish Presidency. The fact remains, however, that the person who most influenced the Sixth Framework Programme was undoubtedly Commissioner Busquin. I would like to pay tribute to him and thank him, because he was always very open to our proposals. He considered them in a professional and sensitive manner. I would like to give him my sincere thanks for his contribution to the Sixth Framework Programme to establish the European Research Area – it was his idea – and the new instruments, such as integrated networks, networks of excellence, integrated projects and the stairway to excellence. We shall, of course, discuss the various themes. There is the difficult issue of ethics which I do not wish to tackle, as this is an area of concern for us. There appears to be a majority of Green Members in favour of rejecting the amendment on ethics. We are concerned by this serious issue and we must be aware that European scientists as well as the public look to us when we take decisions in this area. I recognise that the question of the use of embryos for research purposes is a very personal question, that there are Members in each group who are in favour and against their use. It is no secret that there are different opinions, even within our group. However, we must bear in mind that Parliament, at first reading, adopted an amendment whose aim was to restrict research activities in this highly sensitive area. It seems likely, at the current time, that Parliament will accept the Council’s proposal not to deal with ethics in detail in the Framework Programme and if we accept the Council’s proposal, we are essentially recognising that ethical issues must be dealt with by the experts, by scientists, by the Commission, and not by ourselves, the politicians. There may be good reasons for accepting the compromise and it is up to each of us to decide if it is better to avoid conciliation or to find a satisfactory solution to ethical issues. All I can say to you now is that when we meet the members of our groups to discuss the issue of ethics, we must not forget that the public believes that these are political issues for which we, as politicians, are responsible: we cannot delegate this responsibility. We have further reasons to welcome this Framework Programme: the theme of sustainable development has been included for the first time and has been given a substantial budget, more than EUR 2.2 billion; research into energy, within the framework of renewable energy, is on a par with research into nuclear energy; sustainable transport and research into urban and rural ecosystems, with, in particular, an ‘ecosite’ concept, are new themes which were accepted. We are also pleased with the appropriations which were added for international relations, particularly for the science/society theme. It is now up to us to optimise the Sixth Framework Programme through these very specific programmes which will be developed, as the Commission promised, and on which we shall report back very soon.

Political group: Verts-ALE