Fru formand, fru formand for Rådet, hr. kommissær, da jeg for fire år siden havde æren af at forelægge Parlamentet erklæringen om Amsterdam-traktaten sammen med min ven Dimitri Tsatsos, afsluttede jeg mit indlæg med at minde om Miguel de Cervantes, som, gammel og træt og mæt af dage, sagde, at der var tilfælde, hvor man måtte vælge mellem at være vej eller at være kro, mellem at gå videre eller at gøre holdt, og jeg sagde: "Vi skal være vej, vi skal gå videre".
Madam President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, four years ago, when I had the honour of presenting the statement on the Treaty of Amsterdam to this Parliament, together with my friend Dimitri Tsatsos, I ended that speech by recalling the words of Miguel de Cervantes who, when old and tired and weary of life, said that there were times when one had to chose between the road or the inn, between moving forward and staying put, and I said: 'we must chose the road, we must move ahead '.