Armin Laschet, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – (DE) Mr President, Mr Schmit, Commissioner Borg, ladies and gentlemen, at a time when the European Union is enduring and debating one crisis after another, the affirmation of belief in effective multilateralism and in a strong United Nations is a credo around which most of this House, along with the Council and the Commission, can unite. This September, in New York, the European Union should send out a clear message to the effect that we want reform and institutions that work better, and that we encourage Kofi Annan to proceed down this road.

I see this as a typical example that we could put before those members of the public who think that the nation states might achieve more. The challenges that we face, though, leave us no alternative to action on a global scale. If we are to combat terrorism, to address the problems of failing states, if we are to deal with the world’s shifting climate and to campaign for human rights and democracy around the world, then we need a strong United Nations.

So it is, then, that in the report to be put before the plenary tomorrow, the House’s Committee on Foreign Affairs has limited itself to responding to the High Panel’s proposals. Rather than drafting a new report on the UN in succession to the one we adopted last year, we have got to grips with what the High Panel has proposed, and one topic that has been very much on our minds in doing this has been that of collective security. Reform of the United Nations should be underpinned by the principles of prevention, awareness and shared responsibility.

Something else that had a high priority for us was freedom from want, in the shape of a renewed development policy, something that ties in very well this year with the fifth anniversary of the year 2000’s Millennium Goals.

The third thing that matters to us is that the institutions be renewed and made more representative and more efficient, and so we have reiterated our call for a seat for Europe. We know it is not realistic to expect to achieve this by September, but, even if Europe does not get a seat, we want it to be more present. If there are to be new seats of whatever kind, we want them to go to the European Union, which will then appoint its representatives in the Security Council. That would be a small sign that things were going in the right direction.

The United Nations cannot be reformed by its Secretary-General; that is for the states to do. It is for that reason that we appeal to the European Council for the states represented within it to join together in supporting Kofi Annan and his programme of reform.