Brussels, 13/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday evening 13 March, the European Council was opened with the traditional meeting between heads of state and government and the president of the European Parliament. On this occasion, Hans-Gert Pöttering said the Lisbon strategy was “just” but that the EU was “still far” from attaining its goals - partly because the “reforms decided are not applied with the same commitment throughout the European Union”. The EP supports the “small business act” proposed by the Commission to help small and medium-sized companies, and calls for legislative simplification, he said. On the subject of energy and combating global warming, the package proposed by the Commission in January is a “good basis” for an overall agreement which, in the eyes of the EP, should “ensure energy supply security, enhance the competitiveness of the European economy and allow the EU to achieve its objectives when it comes to combating climate change”. On the subject of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM), Mr Pöttering stressed that “all member states and all EU institutions should be part of this process, including the European Parliament” which should even form part of a possible control body for supervising how the UFM works. Expressing “astonishment” about the fact that the initiators of the UFM had not yet thought of a future “parliamentary component”, Mr Pöttering also deplored the fact that the EP had not been invited to the summit scheduled for 13 July in Paris. (H.B.)