Azzopardi (PPE-DE). – Mr President, humbled and honoured at the privilege granted to me as the first MEP from Malta to address this Assembly so soon after enlargement, I believe that the European Constitution should emphasise a union of citizens just as much as a union of sovereign states – a Union based on the value of 'personalism' and not of individualism.

There is no viable alternative to a Union of nation states, intertwined with a clear recognition of an unmistakable historical fact: Europe's Christian roots, values and heritage. Without such heritage we would not have had the works of Dante, Petrarch, Raphael, Michelangelo and others all inspired by a Christian leitmotif, or the labour of love and Christian faith involved in building the cathedrals and churches of our European cities, including Strasbourg. 'Yes' to European laicism, but 'no' to secularisation. I shall continue in Maltese.