Mr President, I will begin by thanking the Portuguese Presidency and the Commission for all our recent very useful contacts. Let me also once more thank my co-rapporteur Mr Leinen for our excellent collaboration. The Intergovernmental Conference that is about to begin is important, both in a general sense and more particularly in view of the imminent enlargement. The work of the Conference will determine the structure and method based on which Europe will be functioning in the twentieth century. For the European Union of the future to be able to function more effectively, more democratically and with complete transparency, clearly what we need is an extensive and in-depth reform of the institutions and the way they work. The first and substantive prerequisite for achieving that reform is the agenda based on which the Intergovernmental Conference is to begin its work. From the decisions made at the Helsinki Summit, it emerges that the agenda agreed there is unsatisfactory and does not guarantee the essential and substantive changes required for creating a more functional Europe, one that is more effective, more democratic and more transparent. This is because the Helsinki agenda is limited to consideration only of the three issues that relate in a fragmentary way to the structure and operation of just two of the European Union’s institutional bodies. I will not repeat which ones, because everyone knows. My conclusion is justified on the one hand by the constant and sometimes very insistent demands of the peoples of Europe and on the other hand by the huge scale of the great enterprise in which the European Union is already involved, namely enlargement. Granted this, the new Intergovernmental Conference must not fail to include in its agenda issues which, properly addressed, would ensure the correct operation of all and not just some of the European Union’s institutions. Just as it also must not fail to include everyday issues which, for that very reason, are highly visible to the European public. In its numerous debates and its reports so far the European Parliament has openly supported the convening of the Intergovernmental Conference. At the same time, however, I am asking for it to include issues that improve and complement the reform, I repeat, of all the institutional bodies as well as issues that are of direct concern and interest to the European public such as health, energy, culture, transport and even tourism. Whether or not the agenda will ultimately be widened is still the subject of debate and on this point I would like to extol the political conduct of the Portuguese Presidency, which has repeatedly made a commitment to the European Parliament to make the necessary efforts towards that end. All the same, whether or not more issues will be considered must in no way diminish the importance attributed by every Member State to the Intergovernmental Conference. This is because the institutional framework within which Europe will operate in the future is a foundation of European integration and is therefore a matter of the greatest national importance for every one of the Union’s Member States. In light of what I have said, I ask Parliament to approve the opinion which Mr Leinen and I have put before you, so that on 14 February, the work of the Intergovernmental Conference can begin and our two representatives, Mr Brok and Mr Tsatsos, can proceed with the difficult task that awaits them with the European Parliament’s backing. The same applies to the Commission and I would again like to thank Commissioner Barnier for his collaboration with the European Parliament and for the very constructive proposals he put before us.

Political group: PPE-DE