Almeida Garrett (PPE-DE). – (PT) Mr President, Mr Secretary-General, Commissioner, there are gestures which deserve our applause in their own right. That applies to the plans for reform of the Council. Some of the subjects that the Secretary-General referred to, which are highly complex politically speaking, need a revision of the Treaties. For this reason it would be very helpful if the Council could present these proposals to the Convention on the future of Europe in time for them to be discussed and incorporated, if that is agreed, into the outcome its work, which is to be presented to the Intergovernmental Conference next year.

However, I think we all agree that many, indeed the majority perhaps, of the reforms needed for the Council to function well do not fall into this category. There is essentially a consensus that the day-to-day working of one of the most important institutions of the European Union has drifted away from the model set out in the Treaties. In practice, this "intergovernmental drift" has not only deprived the Commission and the European Parliament of some of their powers under the Treaties, but has also deprived our national parliaments of means of effectively scrutinising their own governments.

For this reason, I agree with Mr Poos, the co-rapporteur of the report presented to Parliament on the reform of the Council, when he says that people expect the European Council to have an open and forward-looking political vision, and strategic options and guidelines, rather than responsibility for coordination or taking decisions which should be made by the General Affairs Council.

It is also crucial to recognise that as a co-legislator the Council should not hold its discussions behind closed doors and that it should be open in exercising its political responsibilities. It is important that it should be possible to identify who does or does not make decisions at European level. For many of our citizens, Brussels is distant and needs to be given a human face. The Council bears a great responsibility for this failure to bring the Community institutions closer to the public, making its mission very important. I wish them good luck!