President. − Ladies and gentlemen, the next item is questions to the Council. As happened yesterday during questions to the Commission, we are going to experiment with some new rules which are proposed as part of the reform of Parliament. These are being studied by a special group and basically cover two areas. Firstly, I would invite Members to move to the front benches so that the sitting feels more inclusive and, secondly, supplementary questions will be answered in one go by the President-in-Office of the Council after they have been asked. As a result, as we usually have two supplementary questions, instead of each being answered immediately, the Council will respond to both questions together at the end.

The next item is questions to the Council (B6-0318/2007).

The following questions to the Council have been tabled.

Question No 1 by Manuel Medina Ortega (H-0678/07)

Subject: Solidarity Fund for major disasters

Given the gravity of this summer’s forest fires in certain countries of the Union such as Greece and Spain, and in the light of the Union’s failure to respond quickly and effectively, will the Council be reviewing the Solidarity Fund rules so that in the future we may be armed with appropriate mechanisms to face up to these disasters and mitigate the damage caused?