Guy Verhofstadt, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Mr President, first of all I would like to say to Jean-Claude: what a difference to last year. I liked his speech on the State of the Union. I think it was full of vision, ambition, for 2019, and quite a difference to last year, but let’s be honest between us, a lot has in fact changed in the meanwhile in the Union since last year. In August 2016, for example, it was Mr Hofer who said that he wanted to take Austria out of the euro and the Union, and five months later, after his defeat, he said exactly the opposite. He changed his mind and he said no, no, we want to stay in the euro and in the Union.

And then in March of this year, in the Netherlands, it was Mr Wilders who promised a spring of populism and in what he created, he reaped the opposite. It was the pro-European parties which won the election. And in France, exactly the same, it was Emmanuel Macron who won the campaign with a pro-European programme, and since then even the Front National does not want to exit the euro and the Union anymore. Even in Hungary Viktor Orbán is piping down. He accepts now the authority of the European Court of Justice and he said, two days ago I think, on a radio interview that there is no way that Hungary would ever leave the Union.

So on the occasion of this State of the Union address, I want to say to Mr Hofer, to Ms Le Pen, to Viktor Orbán, welcome to the side of reason, even when we all know that it is not that they have changed their mind, it is not through conviction that they have changed their mind, but it is through fear of losing votes that they have changed their minds now.

The only one for the moment who still does not get it is, I think, Mr Farage. He is still going on. Last weekend he called on the German AfD to campaign on Brexit. I think it is fantastic advice to campaign on Brexit. You have to keep up the good work, Nigel. I hope they take your advice, but unfortunately I do not think they are as stupid as to do that in Germany in the AfD. Because let’s be honest, it is clear what our citizens want: they do not want to destroy Europe, they want to reform Europe – but to destroy it, no bloody way. That is the message from our citizens.

And that is what I liked so much in the State of the Union address this year by Jean-Claude Juncker. Let’s not make the mistake of thinking, okay, the war is over, we have won a few elections in a number of countries and now the wind is blowing in the right direction. No, what the people want is not to continue with this Europe. They want a reformed European Union; 73% of our citizens want more European action on the side of migration; 75% want more European action against climate change. The same number want a European army and, at the same time, even more Europeans want European capacities and capabilities in the fight against terrorism.

So it is true, Jean-Claude, that the last three years were not easy, it was mainly crisis management, but I completely agree with you that now is the moment – now or never I should say, as in the song – to build up the European Union that the people are asking for and that we together have already been dreaming of for a number of years.

And what does this mean? It means that we create a European asylum system so that we can finally get rid of this broken Dublin system, because that is the real origin of the problem. Dublin is not European. It is national egoism: that is Dublin. Not Dublin as a city naturally, sorry, please do not misunderstand me because otherwise I will have my Irish friends against me if I continue like that! A European border and coastguard and a system of legal – indeed, Gianni – migration so that people no longer die on our shores, because every dead body that we find in the Mediterranean is a scandal for us, for Europe; even one person dead in the Mediterranean.

A European defence union so that it is not the Americans and the Russians who decide, Ms Mogherini, in our backyard; which is still the case today. A European FBI – why? Because terrorists do not recognise borders. That is the reality, so why do we continue to do so? And then a real government for the euro area so that we can steer the European economy and we can create what, in fact, we are missing – European champions. Our competition rules are far too narrow. The fact that we have no unified markets with single regulators is why we have no European champions that can become world champions and compete at world level.

But there is one thing on which I have a little difference in point of view with you, and it is the institutional problem. I always think that good institutions produce good policies and that bad institutions create a standstill, stagnation and crisis. And there are a number of examples of that. That is the reason why we in this Parliament, and I thank you for your support because it is really very helpful, want also to create transnational lists and a real European constituency. And why do we want to do that? Because it is time to lift democracy to a continental scale – Europe is more than the sum of 27 national democracies; we are more than that, we are in fact a democracy on a European scale – and also to defend our values and our principles outside the Union, but also inside the Union.

This European democracy is necessary, for example, to withstand alt-right governments such as we see today – also inside, in Poland and in Hungary – who think that Trump with his white supremacy is the example, or that Putin and Orbán, who jail opponents, are the example. That will never be the example in whatever Member State in the European Union. And for that reason we have to create this European democracy with a transnational responsibility because, as Emmanuel Macron said, standing near the Acropolis, we need to be the counterweight to all these developments and yes, to autocratic leaders worldwide – a beacon of openness, a beacon of freedom and a beacon of hope in the 21st century.

(Applause)