Mr President, the report that I am presenting this morning is effectively a dual report which reflects the work of the committee itself and the work of the office of Parliament's Mediator for Transnationally Abducted Children, Mrs Banotti. I should also like to express my personal appreciation of the work of Mr Söderman, the Ombudsman. I should also like to thank the secretariat of the committee not least for the statistical break-down which is provided there which, I must confess, is not my own work. I would urge Members who are not familiar with the Committee on Petitions to read these reports. It might well be of use to them in providing a service for the people they represent. I would also draw their attention to the website mentioned, set up under the Europe Direct initiative, which could provide useful information and possibly avoid the need for a petition or indeed confirm it as an appropriate vehicle. There is a growing need for such information as people become more aware of the importance and relevance of the European Union level. The aim of the Committee on Petitions itself is to provide a good and effective service for individuals within the European Union and for civil society generally. Any individual, citizen, resident or group may petition Parliament if they feel that Community law or principles are not being properly applied at whatever level. Last year we received 958 petitions of which 492 were considered admissible. I will mention just two of them to demonstrate the range of the topics and the potential effectiveness of the mechanism. We had one British petitioner who succeeded in getting her years of teaching experience recognised by the French authorities, presumably affecting her salary and promotion prospects. In another case a petition from a Spanish citizen, acting for an environmental association resulted in infringement proceedings being brought against the Spanish authorities in relation to the Habitats Directive, a frequent cause of complaint – the directive, not the authorities – with lasting national effect. It is such cases which provide valuable feedback to the European Parliament and the other institutions as to how our legislation works to the benefit of the individuals and society, or not, as the case may be. We could not do our work effectively on this committee without the support of numerous Commission officials who investigate cases and instigate proceedings where necessary. I wish to express our thanks. We know we could provide a more rapid and effective service if Member States could provide an equally committed response in replying to requests for information and explanation. In one case we are currently dealing with it has taken 14 months to get a reply to a letter. That is not unusual. That is why we are recommending that the Council or relevant permanent representation should also be represented at our meetings so that they develop a greater understanding of the problems citizens face and respond effectively. I would draw the Council's attention to points 8 and 10 of the report – if it was here. The aim of the committee is to improve the overall quality of our feedback mechanisms. Some of our ideas are mentioned in this report. Others will appear in a further report in September from Mr Perry and Mrs Keßler. We are proposing, as we did last year, a database mechanism so that petitioners and Members can track the progress of reports and see where the problems lie. We trust that the relevant authorities will bear this in mind this year and act on the proposal. There are various points concerning our relations with other committees. We would ask them to call on the Committee on Petitions more often to express an opinion on certain areas where concern has arisen. We would like to be involved in preparing joint reports on areas of particular concern such as the environment, social security, consumer protection and so on. We would also wish to use the experience of our committee members through their work on other committees of Parliament to institute a rapporteur-style system for specific topics. We are also keen to establish links with petitions committees in other Member States, with a view to exchanging good ideas and understanding. We consider as a committee that petitions are a valuable and empowering tool for democracy in what can often feel like a remote and anonymous institution. We need to value this mechanism and use the experience of the people we represent, as expressed through their petitions to improve our work as a whole. I commend the report to the House. (Applause)

Political group: Verts-ALE