Karsten Friedrich Hoppenstedt, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – (DE) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would very much like to thank the rapporteur for his comments on the future of the euro and all the associated policy areas, and to say that he has garnered widespread support in the committee.

I am also grateful to the other participants, in particular to Mr Juncker, who was the face of Europe at the IMF meeting in Washington and made a very good job of it. We were proud of him, and I would just like to say: do not let the negative discussions discourage you from continuing this very successful work.

Ten years ago, I had the honour of speaking about the euro on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, and at the time I said, and I quote, ‘the euro will be strong, in defiance of the negative comments’, such as those from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, as he was to become, who said at the time that the euro was a sickly premature baby. We repudiated that, and successfully in my opinion.

After all, the euro was brought into the world following several years of dieting by means of a strict, consistent fitness policy, and it has been a success. I do not want to go into that yet again. At the time, Gordon Brown was President-in-Office of the Council, and he stated quite clearly back then that the European Parliament had played a major role in the historic process of monetary union. Other players also spoke, including Jacques Santer, and also Wilfried Maartens, who at the time described the countries in the Euro Zone – first 11, then 15, then 16 of them – as the pioneers of a courageous Europe.

I believe that we in Europe need courage for the future, so that we can carry on working so successfully and continue to stand up in the world of the other major powers – the USA, Asia and the other world powers – successfully with the euro. The currency reserves held globally in euro are the best possible evidence of the success of the euro and of the Euro Zone.