Jean Marie Beaupuy, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – (FR) Madam President, Mrs Vassiliou, on 18 November last year, I said the following in this very place: ‘we do not know what the next disaster will be or on what scale it will be, but we are sure of one thing, and that is that there will soon be another disaster again. When that time comes, our fellow citizens, who for 50 years have been used to seeing a supposedly united Europe being built, will turn round and ask us: “what have you done?”’. I repeat, I said that here, to this House, last November.

In this same Chamber, in November 2006, two years before, I said more or less the same thing: ‘if there is one area in which all Europeans expect effective Community responses, it is that of large-scale natural disasters’.

I said that everyone could see this whenever disasters such as the tsunami occur, and continued: ‘that is why, together with my group, I am in favour of implementing preventative actions and of putting in place the capacity to respond very quickly to the consequences of tragedies. In this connection, I should like to draw attention to the quality of the Barnier report, which states the problem well and proposes solutions that are constructive not only in terms of efficiency but also of subsidiarity’. Mrs Vassiliou, we have all remained enthusiastic about this report as it contains highly practical and concrete proposals. It even contains budgetary items and explains that 10% of the Solidarity Fund can provide funding. It explains in a most pragmatic way how to work with the stakeholders in each state.

With the twelve proposals contained in the Barnier report, we had everything necessary to take action at European level which, a few weeks prior to the elections this coming June, would have provided an additional indication of the usefulness and effectiveness of true European operational solidarity.

You have just told us, Mrs Vassiliou, that you hope to receive Parliament’s support. You had this support, and continue to do so. What is the Council doing, since you say that it is the Council which is the issue? The Council is not here this evening. We hope that over and above this debate, it will listen attentively to our call, which is not a call for help, nor another expression of surprise at the recent tragedy, but a call for it to clearly hear the question which I recently asked: ‘what have you done?’.