Abschiedsrede/farewell speech Eryl McNally, Great Yarmouth

When I was asked to be the surprise guest at this Labour Conference I immediately accepted it. It is a great honour for me to be here and say a few words about my most appreciated colleague and friend Eryl McNally.

When Eryl was elected into the European Parliament she became my successor as the co-ordinator of the Socialist Group for Science, Technology, Energy, Industry and in the last five years Foreign Trade. We therefore share similar, if not identical interests.

What convinced me from the beginning was her firm belief that policy must be honest. Jonathan Swift once said that ignorance, idleness and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator. I did not believe in Jonathan Swift and that brought us closer together.

In her former profession Eryl was a teacher. Her pedagogic experience was helpful for our sometimes very heterogeneous group.  She was severe, just, very correct and always helpful to find a solution. She served the group, not herself. And she knew that nothing great can be achieved without enthusiasm.

Facts do not cease because they are ignored. Eryl is a realist. She knows that the best is the enemy of the good. But she also appreciated Einstein´s credo that imagination is more important than knowledge.

We had good times together. And many interests in common. We share a common interest in science and society. We know that science is also a social progress. Science drives society as society drives science.

Latin America is another area where we work together. Eryl is fluent in various european languages, to my great surprise she speaks even welsh and recently she started to learn Portuguese.

Languages are helpful in our multilingual Europe. Eryl came often to Germany and astonished my compatriots with her fluent German.

Languages are also important to overcome our prejudices. And our stereotypes.

We Europeans are different, because we have more and more in common. But the stereotypes are devishly difficult to extirpate. The square-headed Kraut, bowler- headed limey, bereted frog, the moustachived dago will be around for a long time after the European Union has done its job.

The most venerable joke about the European deals with our concept of heaven and hell. "Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs French, the mechanics German and the lovers Italian and it is all organised by Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German and it is all organised by the Italians."

A not so funny joke I heard in Germany also gets fairly close to the mark. It tells of the captain of a cruise liner who has difficulty in persuading his passengers to abandon the ship (the lifeboats are stuck in the davits so he has to get them to jump in the water). He does this by appealing to the dominant instincts in each of the nationalities present: "I told the English it would be unsporting of them not to jump, the French that it would be the smart thing to do, the Germans that it was an order- and the Italians that jumping overboard was prohibited."

In the meantime we have learnt that all these stereotypes make us laugh but are not true. But we are still different. We join our political efforts, we are building a European Union, hopefully Britain will join the Euro, but we will remain British, German, Dutch, French, Greek, etc. And that is good so. If everybody would be like me it would be a boring world.

Eryl understands the different mentalities and cultures without giving up her own. That made her a leading and convincing personality in our multicultural group.

Her approach to reality was that of a scientist. She is curious. And she knew about the complexity of things. "There is always an easy solution to every human problem- neat, plausible and wrong".

But Eryl was also very tolerant. Although we agree on most questions we differ totally on nuclear energy. Being a dissident in my own party on that specific matter because I still believe in the usefulness of nuclear energy whereas Eryl does not share my enthusiasm she tolerated my opinion. We know where we disagree and we respect each other. This is the real base of confidence and fruitful co-operation.

We also share the opinion that we know when we have to stop. We are both not standing again for the European elections. Others will follow us and complete our work. I think that neither Eryl nor me will regret this decision. Although we know that the greatest step is that out of doors.

When the top of our head is beginning to push trough our hair we know we are getting older. But we age like wine ages. And we are as old as we feel. We will not stop our activities but we will be active in a different way.

Being on a Labour Party Conference let me make a final remark about our parties and our governments. Britain and Germany are among the few EU- countries who are still governed by a social democratic or Labour- Party. And we are both facing difficulties for different reasons. There remain plenty of clouds on Tony Blair´s and Gerhard Schröder´s horizon. Both know the local and European Election in June will offer the voters a chance to kick them up the backside without kicking them out.

But public opinion is not a constant in time. Nothing is more mobile than the voter. Let me end with an optimistic joke about my own chancellor who always discovers a ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

After September 11 God asked the three most important leaders of the world, Putin, Bush and Schröder- you may change it into Blair- to appear before his throne. And he told them that in a week the end of the world would come.

Putin took the next flight to Moscow and made a speech on television. "Dear compatriots, ladies and gentlemen, I have two bad news for you. The first one is that God exists. 70 years of atheism were for nothing. The second bad news are that in one week there will be the end of the world.

Bush did the same and returned to Washington where he addressed the Congress: " Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the House of an Senators, I have one good news and one bad news. The good news are that God spoke with me. The bad news are that in one week´s time there will be the end of the world.

Schröder went back to Berlin and went immediately into the Parliament where he addressed the social democratic group. "Comrades, " he said, " I have two good news for you. The first are, I spoke with God and the second one we will govern until the end of the world."

With this optimistic outlook I wish Eryl all the best for the future, you, the Labour Party, all the success you deserve and Richard Howitt more comrades in the group than before, hopefully of the same calibre and quality like Eryl.