Brussels, 27/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Certain members of the Laeken Group entrusted by Guy Verhofstadt to advise him in the debate on the future of Europe pointed out after their first joint meeting with the Belgian Prime Minister (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.3) that their reflections will not only cover institutional matters but also concrete issues, as citizens would wish. This was stated after the meeting by Labour MEP David Miliband, who specified that he was there not to represent Tony Blair but in a personal capacity, as the former Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek also declared in an interview with La Libre Belgique. "We have established a programme for our future meetings, very concrete meetings concerning not only the Union financing but also the working of the European Parliament …", he said, adding that "from our first meeting, it can be seen (…) that the we are keen on the idea of creating a forum (to prepare the next IGC)". Mr Geremek also affirmed that Poland "is contributing all its dreams and its aspirations to discussions" and that the fact of being part of the Laeken Group is "a major step forward for the other candidate countries". It is confirmed, moreover, that the group does not plan to draft a report, and that it should meet another seven times.
The other members of the group are: Jacques Delors, Jean-Luc Dehaene and Giuliano Amato.