Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Patten, both the President-in-Office of the Council and Commissioner Patten have spoken of the need for proper cooperation between the institutions. I emphatically support that and can say on behalf of our Group of the European People’s Party and that we want to work as closely as possible with the Council Presidency. Generally speaking, we already do so with the Commission and good contacts have been initiated. I hope that we can continue to cultivate these good contacts and this cooperation during the six months of the Portuguese Presidency and achieve joint success in the end. Because when you, as the Council Presidency, are successful, then it is our joint success, the success of Europe. So let us work well and closely together. Mr President-in-Office of the Council, this is the second Portuguese Presidency. We all have confidence in you but please, be ambitious! The biggest project which you will start under your presidency is the Intergovernmental Conference. We should like to encourage you to make your contribution, go beyond the Amsterdam leftovers and undertake an ambitious programme. We encourage you to be prepared to make proposals under your presidency, as the Helsinki Summit expressly authorised you to do, so that we can get beyond the three areas left over from Amsterdam because sorting out these three leftovers will not suffice in order to describe the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference as a success. We must get beyond that and I should like to encourage you to exercise your right to submit new proposals to the Intergovernmental Conference. (Applause) I do not want to go into the details now, although it would be very interesting to do so. That is reserved for the debate, however, and Messrs Dimitrakopoulos and Leinen have submitted a report whose general approach we share. So be ambitious. We must, of course, insist on one thing. The Helsinki Summit spoke of both observers in relation to the European Parliament. I should like to ask you from the bottom of my heart to do everything during the practical arrangements for the conference to ensure that the two representatives of the European Parliament have, as far as possible, equal rights at this conference and are given the necessary opportunities, including the necessary technical and working opportunities, to have a proper say at the Intergovernmental Conference. I ask you sincerely, and from the bottom of my heart, to ensure that this is the case. We shall also be rating your presidency on the degree to which you comply with this request. We also thank the Commission for the fact that Commission President Prodi supported the proposals by our President Nicole Fontaine for a broad approach at the Intergovernmental Conference and a suitable status for the two European Parliament representatives in Helsinki. We shall be embarking on new negotiations with six countries under the Portuguese Presidency, five central European countries and Cyprus. Our group of the European People’s Party and has always called for central Europe to be considered as a single entity and we hope that progress will be made in the negotiations over the coming months, which will certainly be very difficult. We should like to ask you, therefore, to give high priority on the European continent to questions of internal security which are very important indeed, both per se and to the acceptance of enlargement in the countries of the European Union. You made a brief reference to Turkey. The European Parliament has acknowledged candidate status for Turkey as decided in Helsinki, but we are now asking for the same standards to be applied to practical relations with Turkey as are applied to the countries of Central Europe. To give you an example: if there is a Hungarian minority in Slovakia or Romania and we insist that they be able to preserve their identity, then we expect the same of Turkey in its handling of the Kurdish question. We want to see progress here so that the identity of the ethnic minorities in Turkey are preserved and we ask you to take the necessary initiatives. (Loud applause) As far as Russia is concerned, we need stability on the European continent. The security of our continent will depend to a large extent on stability in Russia. This should not mean, however, that we keep quiet about certain events. Mr President-in-Office of the Council, it is our duty in the face of events in Chechnya to raise our voices loud and clear and to say to Russia that, if it continues to behave in this way, it is distancing itself from the values of human dignity and human rights of the European continent. Do not be too diplomatic when you express our concerns about human rights in Chechnya to Russia. We must make our voice heard. Commissioner Patten rightly referred to the Mediterranean area. Our Group is agreed that relations with the Mediterranean area and the situation in North Africa and in the Middle East are as important to the European Union as developments in Central or Eastern Europe. We accord them a high priority and we want a dialogue of cultures, but we would also ask you not to be too rash in extending invitations to personalities from the Mediterranean area to visit Brussels. We need to consider if it would perhaps be better to extend such invitations at the end of the peace process, but I do not want to go into that here. One final comment: we were pleased to hear you also refer to the status of Members. Parliament has made a proposal, which comes not from our Group but from Mr Rothley, but which we emphatically support. We want proper, uniform status for all Members of the European Parliament and we want to safeguard the dignity of Members, and I emphatically welcome what you said on this; however, it must be a uniform status which applies to all Members of this European Parliament. If you can make a start on this and the other items on the agenda, if you are successful, and we hope that you are because this is not a party political matter, then it will be a success for Europe and for all of us and for stability, security and democracy on our continent. Our Group of the European People’s Party and wishes you every success in this respect. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE