Brussels, 12/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - The German leader of the EPP/ED Group, Hans-Gert Poettering told a press conference on Wednesday that his Group was against including a statement by President Romano Prodi on the European Commission's strategic goals for the next five years on the agenda of next week's plenary session in Strasbourg. Considering that would not be reasonable to ask Euro-MPs to discuss the Commission's long-term guidelines if they were not in possession of a written document, as was the case on presentation of the annual work programme, he stipulated that,, at the forthcoming Conference of the Presidents of the Political Groups, he would ask, in the absence of a text, for this issue to be withdrawn from the agenda.