thank you very much mr president commissioner minister i have to start with the footnotes
as much as i really admire the rhetorical flair of our friends from ukip i find it quite interesting as someone coming from central europe that you are so ready to share your experience of living under the titoist regime in yugoslavia or under the soviet regime
really interesting
first of all let me congratulate elmar brok for preparing a report which so magnificently represents the mainstream and let me repeat that the mainstream of this house
with the entry into force of the lisbon treaty and the new service we will increase our ability to speak with one voice
we agree that the new service should be as close to the commission as possible because only the community method guarantees the coherence of our actions and most importantly the points of view of us all will be taken into account to the same degree
for the new service to be credible it has to be endowed with as much democratic legitimacy as possible
therefore all the efforts to take care of this house's powers of scrutiny have to be saluted
most importantly we have to do everything to ensure that the new service is of the best quality and that it is trusted by everyone
we have to do our utmost so that the commission the council and twenty-seven member states send their best people to work in the eeas
that is why they have to enjoy the same status
work in the service should be treated as an integral part of their career at home
the people working for the service have to be chosen on merit but also according to geographic balance so as to counteract the unfounded fears that the service could be hijacked by anyone
the lisbon treaty is important and different from all the other treaties because so much depends on its implementation
i hope that the insights of this house will help the council and the commission to actually implement this treaty in such a way that we will increase our ability to speak with one voice
