Text tabled : B6-0205/2007

  Laima Liucija Andrikienė (PPE-DE). – (LT) Mr President, first I would like to thank my colleagues who voted for the resolution on Estonia. Today's vote in the European Parliament showed that EU common foreign and defence policy is not just a declaration on paper or a collection of slogans. It showed that it is an operating policy. Today the European Parliament demonstrated something else too; namely, that solidarity in the European Union is alive and an operating principle. It is easy to declare and demonstrate solidarity when there are no problems and everything is fine. However, it is much more important and more complicated to implement solidarity at critical moments, in times of crisis. Today the European Parliament also showed that there is no disjuncture in the European Union between old and new, or large and small European Union Member States, and that there are no important or less important Members whose interests can be sacrificed for the benefit or interests of the large countries.