Portugal's President Jorge Sampaio came to Strasbourg to confirm his country's commitment to a strengthening of a European Union based on strong democratic principles. The future, he felt, rested on an expansion of a community of law and strengthening the EU's common foreign and security policy.
"This path to gradual construction of a European political identity based on a culture of rights, appears to me to be more productive than the attempts to impose from above, a ready-made and conclusive European constitution without the participation of the citizens of Europe." He was convinced that the gradual evolution of a foreign policy was vital to Europe's interests in defending its common borders and in this sense confirmed his support for both the Atlantic alliance and the Western European Union.
EMU, he said, should be used as an essential tool for international economic competition, for modernisation and for a new approach to social cohesion. A new approach would be needed to social security and the regulation of the job market, to enable Europe's economies to compete, he added. He also paid tribute to the work of the European Parliament which he saw as a backbone of European democracy. As he put it "to honour the European Parliament is to honour European democracy." He looked to Parliament to safeguard Europe's ideals and common values in the future.