Madam President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office, ladies and gentlemen, both on behalf of my group and also on a very personal note I would like to pay homage to Magdalene Hoff for her excellent work in general and for her outstanding work on Kaliningrad. Because of the importance of this occasion, I would also like to thank you, my dear Magdalene – I have never before addressed anyone by their first name in an official speech, this is the first time – for our many years of excellent cooperation both here in this House of course, but also elsewhere, by which I mean Germany's European movement, the Europaunion. Please accept my very best wishes for a speedy recovery, and many thanks for your marvellous work! (Applause) I would like to express my sympathy for the victims of the attack in Kaspiisk in Dagestan, who were murdered on 9 May. There were many children amongst the more than 30 people killed. As Commissioner Patten has already said, terrorism can never be justified. We hope that nothing like this will ever happen again. As Commissioner Patten and Mr de Miguel, the President-in-Office, have said – and I hope that they will raise this at the summit – we call on the Russian Government, should it turn out that these attacks, these acts of violence were committed by Chechens – and in the case of Dagestan that is a supposition for which there is still no proof – not to equate these terrorists, these perpetrators of violence with the Chechen people. No, the civilian population of Chechnya should be protected... (Applause) ... and we should use the negotiating process to ensure that Chechnya has a good future. Overall, we believe that our relations with Russia are of a strategic nature. Our relations with the United States are of strategic significance, our relations with the Mediterranean area are of strategic significance and of course the enlargement of the European Union is also of strategic significance, but as I have said, so are our relations with Russia. Our relations need to be founded on democratic principles, on the rule of law, on social and market-economy principles and above all on human rights and human dignity. It is on that basis that we wish to cooperate with Russia politically, economically and in terms of security policy. We also want to emphasise what has already just been mentioned here – a common European economic area and maximising cooperation with Russia. However, I would like to add, because this is occasionally mentioned, that I cannot imagine, and nor can the majority of my group, in fact I think we are as one on this, that Russia could become a member of the European Union, in view of its size. I think that needs saying, in all honesty. However, we do want to extend economic relations, to dismantle trade barriers and to encourage greater investment in Russia. That means overcoming certain obstacles. We wish to cooperate in the area of internal security. Not long ago I visited Finland with the chairman of our group. Finland shares a common border with Russia and has exemplary security controls on that border. We need to create something comparable for all our borders with Russia. I wish to call on the Russian Government to do its part to make sure that we also achieve security in relation to Kaliningrad. As I have already used up my speaking time, I would just like to add that we have every intention of stepping up relations with the Russian Federation, because security in our continent in the twenty-first century is largely dependent on the European Union and Russia being able to act, and on Russia hopefully also being democratic, because together there is a great future for us in the European continent that we share. (Applause) IN THE CHAIR: MR PACHECO PEREIRAVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE