Special Plenary Sitting on the Euro - Address by British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and European Commission President, Jacques Santer and oral Report by Karl Von Wogau, Chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on the Commission’s proposal to allow 11 countries to be in the first wave of the Single Currency. Heads of each political Group took the floor to add their comments to the debate.

debate

plenary session

vote

MARTENS, Wilfried A.E. (EPP, BE)

SANTER, Jacques (EPP-DE, LU)

von WOGAU, Karl (EPP-DE, DE)

BROWN, Gordon (UK)

GREEN, Pauline (PSE, UK)

ROTH, Claudia (V, DE)

AZZOLINI, Claudio (EPP, IT)

de VRIES, Gijs M. (ELDR, NL, Gijsbert)

Special Euro Sitting: extracts

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Jos&#233; Mar&#237;a GIL-ROBLES, EP President, introductory remarks

SOUNDBITE (English), Gordon BROWN, British Prime Minister and President of the Council of the EU,, on the new era and the Euro area.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gordon BROWN, British Prime Minister and President of the Council of the EU, on the unanimous decision to include 11 member states into the EMU

SOUNDBITE (English), Gordon BROWN, British Prime Minister and President of the Council of the EU, as being the test of success for growth and employment

SOUNDBITE (French), Jacques SANTER, President of the EC, on the difficulties of convergence policies

SOUNDBITE (French), Jacques SANTER, President of the EC, its acceptance and the protection of consumers, on the European world.

SOUNDBITE (German), Karl VON WOGAU,  thanking the founding fathers of EMU and stating that he agrees with the proposal to allow 11 participant countries ; stating that this is a great victory for European integration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pauline GREEN, on British membership and on protecting those EU countries outside the &ldquo;Euro zone&rdquo;.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pauline GREEN, on the nomination of the Governor of the European Central Bank and on it&rsquo;s independence.

SOUNDBITE (French), Wilfried MARTENS, EPP, BE, on the 11 member states and the building of a powerful instrument of sovereignty.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Claudio AZZOLINI, for the Union for Europe Group speaking in Italian, on the efforts made by the weaker countries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gijs  M. DE VRIES, for the Liberal Group, on the entry of the UK who has not been a willing participant, and Sweden.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Alonso Jos&#233; Puerto, speaking in Spanish, for the Nordic Greens and United Left Group, on wanting the Euro but not this way (due to the adverse effects of convergence).

SOUNDBITE (German), Claudia ROTH, on the Euro going better than expected but waring on the social consequences of an integrated monetary policy.

Vote on the ECOFIN recommendations and approval by EP. Vote : 556 votes , 467 in favour, 65 against, 24 abstentions. Signature of the report on convergency by President Gil Robles.

General atmosphere, cutaways of the plenary , exhibition on the EURO and Union of European Federalists pro-Euro demonstration (Heads of Blair and Kohl).