madam president i have to say that i am very touched by the new romance between the epp and the s d group but i do feel that the intimate and loving embrace between mr rapkay and mr lange is keeping europe firmly stuck in the past
we are talking about the seventh extension of the special state aid regime
mr rapkay himself has indicated that he was rapporteur back in two thousand and two
who will give us a guarantee that we are not going to have the same debate in twenty eighteen
because the reasons that were valid back in two thousand and two that are valid today will still be valid in twenty eighteen
therefore my group without reserve endorses the position of the commission
we have requested a separate vote on amendments twenty-five and twenty-seven and we call on all colleagues in the two big groups to vote against those amendments and support the position of the commission to phase out the support by twenty fourteen
i know that votes took place in the different committees but i also know that there are many colleagues in the two big groups who feel deeply uncomfortable with the current position
i think they should realise that they have all the freedom in the world to vote according to their conscience because it is not actually the european parliament that decides
so they should vote in order to state their views
we are not negotiating we do not have to compromise
we can give a very strong political signal in support of the commission and therefore i think this european parliament should act as a counterweight to the very strong political pressure from the member states on the commission and show that this parliament is looking to the future and not to the past
