It is important today that we should, in a solemn moment of silence, show our respect for the dead and the bereaved and to connect, from the northern hemisphere, with this African tragedy as an act of reassurance and solidarity that the south matters to us.

– (DE) Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, honourable Members, I should like to pick up on just one thought that has run through the whole of this debate, namely the fact that, in the midst of such awful disaster, comforting moments occur, especially when humanity suddenly shows its face where it was least expected.

May the wonderful memories they have of their extraordinary mother sustain them at this time.

This is a heartening moment for me and for Reverend de Corneille, who initially brought this issue to the other place in 1985.

– (ES) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is reassuring to know that in negotiations as important as those with the World Trade Organisation, the Fifteen Member States have adopted a common position in order to establish, in the area of agriculture, stable ground rules which will allow fair trading on the world scene and to face the challenges of the new Millennium with a clear purpose. We can do this because we have based our position on those adopted at the time from the agenda of the agriculture agreement of the Uruguay Round and at Agenda 2000 in Berlin, as well as on maintaining the multifunctional nature of agriculture