Jaime Mayor Oreja, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – (ES) Mr President, esteemed Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, I want to thank the Prime Minister of Spain for his thoughts on the direction of the European Union.

It is true that we would have preferred his speech and his thoughts on Europe to have been given at another time, before and not after the Lisbon Summit, and specifically not seventy-two hours after his appointment as Prime Minister, because these circumstances are never beneficial to achieving the real objective of such a meeting. However, ladies and gentlemen, at the same time it would be unfair of me – and our Group would not want this – if I did not thank the Prime Minister for or rightly value his contribution which is without doubt very useful in terms of the future direction of Europe.

It is not easy for me to speak on behalf of the PPE-DE Group on freedom and the European Union, basically because there have been personal experiences in my Group which so typify the defence of freedom and which are so recent in their occurrence that I cannot find sufficient or adequate words to explain the deep and real meaning of the European Union for our Group.

Our Group is delighted at the definite progress made at the Lisbon Summit but, at the same time, we would be lying if we did not say that our Group considers that we still do not have sufficient political momentum and ambition to transform the European Union of today into the European Union that we need for the future of the European people. We cannot achieve the Europe we need if we do not believe in ourselves. We cannot complete the European Union with inertia or fine words or simply from common ground. Words such as coherence and authenticity are not enough, for example, when tackling the transposition of European directives or complying with the Kyoto Protocol.

Prime Minister, what is missing is undoubtedly determination, defence of our values and effort. It is these elements that will enable us to consolidate the moral strength of the Union and, ultimately, its own culture which is what our project essentially stands for. However, we must make our European citizens aware of these missing elements. We must tell them about these and clearly explain them. We must share with them this political need for effort and dare to tell them the truth about what is missing. They will not be discouraged by this but will, in fact, provide the hopes, dreams and proximity that we so desperately need. We must tell them more clearly what the problems are. We must prioritise these and work on these urgent issues to find a way to distribute powers between the European Union and the European nations, without generalising, but instead by prioritising and identifying the most urgent problems that remain.

Prime Minister, agreement, consensus and a gradual approach have been the traditional European methods, because consensus is a method more than a value. This means that we must define and organise this consensus and, at the same time, we have to empower the European political groups, because there will be no European Union without European political parties. This also means that we should not bring to this House any national disagreements or dissensions (which are real and deep), as were regrettably brought from Spain some months ago, as you well know.

Prime Minister, there are problems that require a European solution. This without doubt strengthens the Union but, in the opinion of our Group, it also strengthens the European nations. The Union will not grow stronger as the European nations grow weaker, but in fact totally the opposite: the European Union, in order to be completed, needs its members to be strong and it will be impossible to complete this project with weakened nations which threaten its territorial integrity.

The value of freedom is what unites us. This is the value to end all values and it is these values which are set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights that will be signed on 12 December in Strasbourg. However, this is not just an illusion: it is a renewed commitment to freedom, and not just in the territory of our Union, but particularly in the territory of our friends with whom we have traditionally shared our culture, in Latin America and also in some republics of eastern Europe. It is in these countries too that we must try to consolidate our framework of principles and values.

I have one further thing to say: coherence rather than words. History has proven the beneficial effect of our culture on the world. We should pass it on and, at the same time, be aware that we cannot lock up this value within our European Union.