Mr. Carlo Casini:

I thank the Chairman for the welcome. I am sorry for being late. I apologise also that I do not speak English. It is one of my many limitations.

This meeting is part of a programme, which was started at the beginning of this term of the European Parliament and in which we are holding meetings in all of the EU member states. In particular, we are meeting bodies dealing with European affairs and the constitutional affairs committees of the member states. The goal is to get to know in more depth the fundamental problems relating to European integration, in particular, the balance that has to be struck between member state identity and European identity, member state sovereignty and European sovereignty, and democratic legitimacy.

These types of meetings were particularly necessary because in January the Irish Presidency will be starting and, therefore, we need to have closer relationships between the European Parliament and Irish institutions, and particularly between the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament and the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, which is one of a kind within the European Union.

The main problem facing us in the European Parliament is the economic crisis, in particular, looking for ways to overcome this crisis. We have many problems with unemployment, problems relating to growth and to balancing the budget, and also an institutional crisis at the heart of this. In order to overcome the crisis, we have looked into various treaties, regulations, different instruments and tools, and also at a range of different levels, we have looked at governance and European integration. The situation cannot be left as chaotic as it is at present. Something has to be done in order to get a grip on it and govern it properly. In fact, my committee has appointed two members, Mr. Trzaskowski and Mr. Gualtieri, who, sadly, cannot be present today, who have been tasked with looking into this and putting together a document on how we can govern Europe and the multi-tier governance that exists at present.

On top of this, we are seeing increasing disaffection amongst the people of Europe with regard to the European Union. This sense of lack of involvement in European affairs is something we really must overcome. We need to encourage people's affection for Europe once again. The 2014 European elections will be an important moment for all of this because for many years we have seen a constant drop in voter turnout and in participation in European elections. We must ensure that 2014 is the start of a new impetus for European integration. One of the means we can use to do this is to introduce the new political party statute, which we are looking into in my committee and on which we hope progress will be made under the Irish Presidency.

The next elections will be an important moment for us. We have to use them as a way of encouraging growth within the European Parliament and development in Europe. One of the things we need to do is to make use of one of the provisions within the Lisbon treaty which is to ensure that there will be uniform electoral law in all member states.

This is a major problem. In the past we have seen that the idea of having one single European college has not been approved or passed. We need to have new proposals from the European Parliament and from my committee to see how we can reform electoral law in Europe. We need to increase the legitimacy of European political parties. There have been various studies and groups looking at this, including the Van Rompuy working group and an inquiry launched by the German foreign affairs Minister as well as discussions and a report prepared by the French parliamentary assembly. I am sure the committee members are familiar with all of these. Other ideas put forward include allowing political parties to designate Commissioners or to some extent allowing them to vote on the appointment of Commissioners. It has also been suggested that they be given more of a say in who is appointed as the European Council and European Commission Presidents. We would be interested in hearing members' opinions on these issues and on all of the other questions that are currently affecting the democracy and representativeness of European Union structures today.

I have raised a number of problems as we see them at the moment and I am sure my colleagues will raise other issues that they wish to discuss. However, what we really want to hear are the topics, problems and issues that are most important to members of this committee.