The European Union has, for many years, been absolutely necessary to secure the future of our welfare states. I see the European Parliament as the fourth room in the 'democratic house' next to local municipalities, regions and national parliaments. All four rooms are important. We can only reach our goals by working politically in all of them at the same time. Unfortunately, the European room is one where the majority of our peoples only rarely come. We should do something about that.
No one - least of all I - dared to hope for such a big declaration of trust the Danish electors gave us Social Democrats at the election to the European Parliament on 13 June 2004. 407.966 was the number of personal votes that I received - it has now become my new lucky number!
You can also read more about the European Parliament on www.europarl.eu.int