Morillon (PPE-DE). – (FR) Mr President, the thought of the United States-European Union Summit planned for Dublin in two months’ time is sufficient justification for today’s debate, which, just for once, is being held far enough ahead of the event. This should be the norm as often as possible in this House.

I am pleased that, on this occasion, the draft resolution produced by the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, Mr Brok, makes much of the matters of security and defence which would justify, if necessary, a reassertion of the transatlantic links, which became extremely stretched at the time of the Iraq crisis.

On the eve of our next plenary session, which will witness the implementation of the enlargement approved today, it would be appropriate to repeat what we already stated in April in the context of the own-initiative report on European defence policy, the conclusions of which have been taken up by our treaty partners and will, I hope, result in positive decisions when the Intergovernmental Conference has completed its deliberations.

What did we say then, Mr President-in-Office of the Council and Commissioner Patten? We said it was a good idea quite simply to repeat that NATO is still today a fundamental guarantee of transatlantic stability and security and that this is why it makes sense to strengthen the capabilities of both NATO and the European Union.

We must bear in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that we Europeans are partly responsible for the unilateralism of which we accuse the Americans so much, quite simply because we have been refusing for years to share with them the burden of defending our common values. This is why I am pleased about the commitment in this respect, recently reaffirmed by our Parliament and by the Convention.