− Prima della votazione

  Algirdas Šemeta, Member of the Commission. − Mr President, I wish to thank the rapporteur, Mr Jørgensen, and the shadow rapporteurs for their constructive approach to the proposal. Following fruitful cooperation between the three institutions, I believe we have reached our common objective and a good and reasonable outcome which the Commission can accept.

However, the Commission would like to make a declaration on the external representation aspects to ensure that the provisions are interpreted in coherence with the Treaty and to avoid legal uncertainty. The declaration states, and I quote: ‘The Commission observes that the title of Article 5 refers to the participation of the Union in the Convention, whereas paragraph 1 speaks more broadly of participation in the Convention, which shall be a joint responsibility of the Commission and the Member States. It recalls that the Commission represents the Union, under Article 17(1) of the Treaty on European Union, in areas that do not come under the common foreign and security policy. Accordingly, the Commission considers that the joint responsibility of the Commission and the Member States mentioned in Article 5(1) does not refer to the representation of the Union, as could possibly be derived from the title. Rather, Article 5(1) must be interpreted in the light of the division of competences between the Union and the Member States established by the Treaties.’