- Mr President, I am very disappointed at that response. We heard statements in this House from Chancellor Kohl and the Foreign Minister, President-in-Office Mr Kinkel, about increasing cooperation with this Parliament. We heard them stating their willingness to improve cooperation with this Parliament. If they are now claiming that there is not enough time for them to present a statement, then I do really do wonder how sincere they were, because we in this House know that it is perfectly possible and often happens that we ask for a statement on the Monday and receive it on the Wednesday.

We have asked in plenty of time for both these statements to be forthcoming from the Council. I am very disappointed that they are not on the agenda, particularly the anti-poverty programme statement. What we see here is not just that the Council is preventing us in this Parliament from having a discussion on the anti-poverty programme, but it is also stopping any progress at Council level to deal with the huge problem of exclusion and poverty that exists at European level. Since June, action to assist the poorest people in Europe has been absolutely pushed off the political agenda as a result of the presidency's action. We all know what it is about, Mr President; it is about domestic political priorities. It is not good enough that those excluded and those in poverty in the European Union should be dismissed in this way for domestic policy reasons.

Can we pass on to the Council our great dissatisfaction with this situation and ask you, Mr President, to repeat the requests for statements on the Mediterranean and on the anti-poverty programme?