Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I would just like to start by welcoming the Commission's presence here in such numbers, with not just President Prodi, but also Vice-President de Palacio and Mrs Reding and Mr Solbes from the Commission itself. I believe – and Mrs Wallström is also present, sitting in the second row; I crave your forbearance for not mentioning you at the outset, but being greeted separately is so much more effective – that this shows the importance we attach to cooperation between the institutions of the Council, the Commission and Parliament, a subject on which I shall make a few concluding remarks. What the President-in-Office of the Council and the President of the Commission said in Barcelona meets with our entire approval. In your own country, Mr President-in-Office, you and your own policies have been very successful over the past years. You are, though, a natural heir to the tradition of the Lisbon decisions, which are framed in very demanding terms: the most dynamic, most competitive and most sustainable economic area is to come into being. We would all, I think, be the better off for more modest language, as criticism would then be less marked when we fail to act according to these principles and in line with these objectives. Although it is clear to us that the Spanish Presidency has been led into a difficult situation here – which is why I do not want to criticise the Presidency too harshly – our group would very much have welcomed it if the Finance Ministers of the EU countries had gone along with the Commission's proposals when what was at issue was the requirement that two EU countries should actually abide by the Stability and Growth Pact. It is, among other things, an institutional problem when those who will be giving out marks at the end of the day who deserve to get bad ones, and when, moreover, these people promise something for 2004, namely, an almost balanced budget, which we already know to be scarcely achievable. We therefore call for credibility and stability and urge that we should keep to what we agreed in the treaties on the common European currency. Our group stands alongside the Commission, whom I encourage to stick to their stability policy and pursue it consistently, and we would welcome it if the Finance Ministers were to take that on board. Mr President-in-Office, you were right to speak about small and medium-sized enterprises, and I was glad to hear that an informal Council has been held. I believe that we should, in our economic policy as a whole, give much more attention to small and medium-sized enterprises. The best economic policy would be for us to maintain a moderate tax regime. The more we lift the tax burden from small and medium-sized enterprises and liberate them from bureaucracy as well, the more they will be able to invest and also create jobs. That then benefits the workers, and so it is right to put small and medium-sized enterprises centre stage. You were right to speak about the liberalisation of the markets, of the markets in transport, energy, and, I would like to add, postal and financial services. One could get the impression from the use of the expression ‘liberalisation’ that it is something that benefits the income of enterprises. No, ladies and gentlemen, we must say more distinctly that liberalisation means more competition, more competition means reduced prices, and reduced prices benefit precisely those people – that is, consumers – who do not have such high incomes, and that is why it is important that we bring this competition about. In order that I do not go over time, this will have to be my last comment. Mr President-in-Office, our group will judge the Spanish Presidency by how it succeeds in reforming the Council. Mr Solana, the Council Secretary-General, will, if I am rightly informed, be submitting proposals in Barcelona for reform of the Council. There is also now a paper by the British Prime Minister and German Chancellor, and Mr Aznar, the President of the Council, has no doubt followed it sympathetically. It is not enough to make public statements, though, if we want to reform the Council; that desire must be communicated to the Permanent Representatives. I get the impression that what is being thought by the Heads of Government has not yet reached the inter-institutional working party set up by the Council, the Commission and Parliament. So I ask you to contribute to the Council's reform of itself, to have it, as a legislature, always sitting in public, and always present here when important debates take place in Parliament. If you achieve that, your Presidency will be counted a success! We want it to be a success, because we want a shared success for Europe. The Commission is, in any case, standing alongside Parliament, and if we take action together, the success will be Europe's, and from the depths of my heart I want some of its lustre to reflect on the Spanish Presidency. By the way, I hope that, next time you visit Parliament, you will at once be given a drink, because we always treat our guests well. (Applause) IN THE CHAIR: MR DIMITRAKOPOULOUVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE