Alexander Stubb, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – Mr President, I am actually speaking on behalf of your countryman, Mr Protasiewicz. Firstly I would like to thank the rapporteur for an excellent job. The work we did in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs went very smoothly and most of the committee stands behind the report.

I would like to make three points. The first point is that our group welcomes the Commission’s initiative of withdrawing 68 pieces of legislation. The original idea of European integration was to bring down walls, not to create them, and the Commission in its analysis and screening did an excellent job.

The second point, however, is that when we deal with this issue we have to be very careful that we do not start changing the Commission’s exclusive right of initiative. The idea of a new Commission withdrawing initiatives or announcing which initiatives it will withdraw as soon as it comes into office is a good one, and to a certain extent we could say that the Commission did that this time around, which should be welcomed.

My third and final point is that we want increased consultation between the European Parliament and the Council as well, but it is very important to retain and keep the institutional balance pretty much as it stands. So we want closer involvement, but maintenance of the institutional balance when we talk about screening of legislation in general.

I have always considered myself to be a bit of an institutional nerd, but I can guarantee that the next speaker, Mr Corbett, is even more of one!