Mae gen i deimladau cymysg wrth eich anerch chi yma heddiw – dwi wrth fy modd fy mod i’n wedi fy ail ethol I gynrychioli Cymru yn y Senedd Ewropeaidd ond wrth gwrs yn gweld eisiau cyd-aelod o Blaid Cymru. Roedd Eurig a finne yn dîm da ac mae’n drueni mawr nad yw e gyda ni ym Mrwsel bellach. Ond mae ein colled ni yn gyfle gwych I Ynys Mon ac rwy’n siwr bydd Eurig yn parhau fel cydaelod mewn lle arall – fel Aelod Seneddol Ynys Mon wedi’r etholiad cyffredinnol nesaf. Edrychaf ymlaen at weithio gyda ti eto Eurig.

Roedden ni o hyd yn gwybod y byddai’n hynod o anodd i ennill dau sedd allan o bedwar, ond gyda tim gwych o ymgeisyddion a thim yr un mor fendigedig o staff fe ymladdon yr etholiad gyda’n holl egni. Hoffwn gymryd y cyfle yma i ddiolch i Jon, Gwenllian ac Eilian a’r holl staff oedd yn rhan o’r ymgyrch yn ogystal ac aelodau yn mhob rhan o’r wlad a ddaeth allan ym mhob tywydd i ganfasio ac ymgyrchu gyda ni. Mae’n bleser gweld gwir gyfeillgarwch a chydweithio a dyna beth oedd gennym ni yn yr ymgyrch Ewropeaidd. Fe wnaeth wahaniaeth. Mi oedd yn cyfri.

Ryn ni yn blaid boblogaidd! Mae pobl yn ein hoffi ni’n fawr! Yn ol ymchwil ‘State of the Nation’ Ymddiriedolaeth Joseph Rowntree fis Gorffennaf mae mwy o bobl yn hoffi Plaid Cymru yn fawr nac unrhyw blaid arall!

Ond dyn ni dal heb berswadio nifer o’r bobl yna i roi eu pleidlais i ni. Mae gyda ni Etholiad Cyffredinnol flwyddyn nesaf siwr o fod – cyfle gwych i anfon pobl i frwydro’n galed dros Gymru yn San Steffan.

Mae gennym draddodiad o gewri o Aelodau Seneddol ym Mhlaid Cymru sydd wedi gosod y safon ar ein cyfer ni i gyd sydd yn cynrychioli Cymru a Phlaid Cymru ar bob lefel:

Gwynfor Evans – y cefais y pleser ac anrhydedd o gwrdd eto yn gynharach eleni – a weithiodd dros heddwch a chyfiawnder ac a heriodd Margaret Thatcher pan dorodd addewid y Toriaid i sefydlu S4C ac ennill!

Dafydd Wigley a oedd ac sy’n dal i fod yn lais cryf dros bobl gydag anabledd a wnaeth, gyda Dafydd Elis Thomas, ennill iawndal i weithwyr chwarel sydd yn dioddef o afiechydon ar y frest; y ddau yn gyn lywyddion y Blaid;

Cynog Dafis – a greodd hanes fel yr aelod seneddol Plaid Cymru/Gwyrdd cyntaf a’r unig un - ac a lywiodd mesur arbed egni yn llwyddianus drwy’r Senedd; ac y mae Simon Thomas wedi parhau gyda’i waith da gan frwydro’n ddiflino ar faterion amgylcheddol a datblygu cynaladwy;

Ieuan Wyn Jones fu’n lais yn San Steffan dros ffermwyr ac ardaloedd gwledig ac sydd bellach yn rhoi arweiniad ardderchog i’n grwp ni yn y Cynulliad;

Hywel Williams sydd wedi brwydro dros hawliau gweithwyr, yn enwedig gweithwyr Friction Dynamex;

Elfyn Llwyd – a gyflwynodd y syniad o gael Comisiynydd Plant i Gymru yn y lle cynta ac sydd yn arweinydd rhagorol i’r tim presennol yn San Steffan;

Ac Adam Price – sydd wedi herio Tony Blair ynglyn a’r rhyfel anghyfreithlon yn erbyn Irac – yn gwmws fel gwnaeth Gwynfor Evans gyda Thatcher.

They may have plenty of Goliaths, but we have equally as many Davids – or Dafydds – lined up to defend the people of Wales in the House of Commons. Our MPs have honesty, integrity, values and vision.

Compare that with the Labour MPs from Wales willing to sacrifice their own country’s future well being to keep their own well paid jobs. They could be the very people Harri Webb had in mind when he wrote in the Welsh Nation many years ago about an organisation called AWFUL – the Anti Welsh Federation of Unionist Loyalists. Doesn’t that exactly describe those people who would deny Wales a proper parliament for their own selfish reasons – they are an absolute disgrace, they have abandoned the very principle of serving in the public interest in order to save their own skins.

So how does a small group of New Labour MPs get to block such a big decision? Because they’re New Labour. Who’s going to tell them they can’t? The New Labour government in the Assembly? Hardly! It’s too weak and ineffective. It’s incompetent. It’s failing – failing the people of Wales on all those issues so crucial to our everyday lives, like health. It is just a poor reflection of the New Labour government in London.

Because New Labour in London is New Labour everywhere - For them profit and big business come before people – New Labour plc. They don’t listen to people even when there are millions marching on the streets against an illegal and immoral war. They still attacked Iraq and created the bloody chaos we see in that country today. While this may be a fringe matter at the Labour Party conference according to Peter Hain but the killing of thousands of people will never be a fringe issue to us or the people of Wales.

How many times have we demanded – even begged and pleaded with the government to intervene when companies are in trouble and thousands of jobs are at risk? How many times have we seen companies close or move out of Wales, devastating whole communities, while the government has stood back claiming they are powerless to stop it? And how many times do we have to see workers such as those of ASW and Friction Dynamex robbed of the pensions that they paid into throughout their working lives whilst the government stands idly by refusing to help?

We’ve all witnessed this happen. But they don’t treat everyone like this.

On Wednesday this week the British government asked the European Commission for €6 billion – that’s about £4 billion - in state aid to bail out a private nuclear power company. And they got it! Now this money is to pay for managing and processing nuclear waste – something that the company is supposed to have put money aside for while reactors are operating but of course they haven’t. So it’s OK to let some industries go to the wall, but not all. This rotten government will bend over backwards to find the cash to prop up their friends in the nuclear industry, but when it comes to fulfilling their duty to honest workers robbed of their pensions, they did too little too late.

And New Labour can find endless resources to pour into areas where they are desperate to win elections and win back seats, as we have seen only too well this year. They come in with their huge party machine, fuelled from London, they bring in their candidates with them and they bombard people with their spin. It’s rotten, cynical politics at its worst – driven not by a desire to improve people’s lives but by a lust for power, a desire to win at all costs – the complete opposite of our values as a party. No wonder people are disillusioned with politics. No wonder so many people don’t vote.

We look around and see a corrupt world. Bush and Blair, lies and war, death and disaster.

But they can’t get away with it. And which party is challenging them? We are - Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales. We have principle. We believe in equality and justice – not just talking about it but doing it. We are a party that listens, that people can trust. We can fight back – at all levels – against the injustice in society - and we do. “The heart and soul” said Gwyn Alf Williams “are what they always were” and we have to win them. We must mobilise all those threatened groups in our society and work with them, acknowledging the reality of our present situation but working towards a better future.

We can make a difference and the people of Wales can make a bigger difference by supporting us in our campaign. It won’t happen overnight. As Gwyn Alf said again in 1985, “…the first fifty years will be the worst…The tides of history are running for us, provided we can get through the next fifty years.”

I was in a meeting last week talking about these issues where a young woman said that she’d never been approached by anyone from Plaid Cymru asking for her support. She didn’t know anything about us. We can’t allow that to happen ever, anywhere. It’s our job – it’s your job to go out there – to make sure everyone knows what we are and what we do and what we stand for. We do stand up for what the people of Wales believe in and we have to shout that from the rooftops.

We are campaigners first and that is our strength. But only if we use it. This next year gives us the chance to do that. As Dafydd Iwan said this morning

‘Whatever our aspirations for the future of Wales and the world there is no meaning to them if we can’t make a real difference to improve the quality of life of the people of Wales.’

And of course he’s absolutely right. And this is the vision that guides my work for Wales in the European Parliament. All that we do is – has to be – driven by our desire to improve the quality of life of the people of Wales, to make our communities safer, to combat poverty and social injustice, to improve the health service and work for a cleaner environment. This vision will drive my work for Wales in Europe over the coming years and this vision will I’m sure lead to more Plaid Cymru MPs being elected next year.

As I said earlier I’m delighted and privileged to be re-elected to represent Wales in the European Parliament. Now we’ve been joined by representatives of a further ten new nations and it’s an inspiration for me to see members from Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and elsewhere speaking up for their nations in Europe on an equal footing with the other member states. Speaking up in their own native languages and I hope that before too long I will have the choice of addressing the European Parliament in Welsh or in English and that Welsh ministers will be able to use Welsh or English at European negotiations. New and exciting developments on the definition of official and working languages in Europe mean that Catalan, Galician, Basque and Irish may soon be added to the list – we are campaigning for Welsh to be included, it is our right as a nation, and will raise Wales’ international profile, something that’s good for our economy.

We face great challenges and opportunities at the European level over the coming years. Not least making sure that Wales’ voice is heard now that the Union has grown to 25 members. The British parties will continue to follow the London line, but I will not shy away from my responsibility to represent the values, traditions and priorities of our diverse communities. I am involved in setting up a cross party group of MEPs that will promote the principle of peaceful conflict resolution and oppose illegal wars and work particularly for nuclear disarmament and as part of this campaign I have invited the Mayor of Hiroshima to the European Parliament to talk about his Mayors for Peace campaign;

And we must maintain our total opposition to GM crops. Just last week the UK Government was one of only four member states to support allowing a new strain of GM maize to be cultivated – on this as on so many issues they’re just not listening, well we have to make them listen! A few weeks ago I helped launch a new campaign group for GM Free Zones to fight for governments like our own National Assembly to be given the legal right to enforce a ban on growing GM crops in Wales – two thousand European regions and local authorities have already said they want to be GM free and we will campaign for their legal right to enforce this at a European level.

If this government gets its act together we may see a referendum on a European Constitution in the next few years. New Labour seems to be in disarray over the Constitution – well that’s their problem. For us in Plaid Cymru we know what sort Wales we want to see, a Wales that can take its place as an equal member of the European family. We have set out our ‘Green lines’ on the Constitution which will improve the position of Wales; consultation with the Assembly before European legislation is proposed, for the European treaty to be translated into Welsh, regular attendance of Welsh Assembly Ministers at the Council of Ministers and for the agreement of the Assembly to be sought before casting the UK vote on matters for which it is responsible.

I am working closely with our MPs to take this forward and let me tell you it’s absolutely vital that we get the strongest team possible elected to Westminster next year. To make a difference for Wales in Europe I need the partnership of a strong Plaid Cymru team at all levels of government and in all of our communities. And the next big challenge is the Westminster election. Do we want New Labour MPs who put their own jobs before the interests of the people or principled, hard working Plaid Cymru MPs who stand up for Wales when Wales needs them. We know the answer, now we must leave no stone unturned to take our message to every community in the country.

We have to do it, Wales deserves no less, we can’t let Labour get away with their shameful dereliction of duty in governing our country – but it’s up to us and no-one else, so let’s take the fight to Labour and campaign across Wales.

Mae Cymru ein hangen ni – fel wedodd Dafydd Iwan mae angen baeddu dwylo weithiau er mwyn yr achos – wel mae’n amser ateb yr alwad honno. Rhwng nawr a’r etholiad nesa byddaf yn teithio i bob cwr o Gymru i helpu gyda’r ymgyrch, yn cydweithio gyda’n aelodau ar draws y wlad. Felly mwynhewch beth sy’n weddill o’ch amser yn Llandudno – ond cofiwch bod gwaith mawr o’n blaenau ni – mae llawer iawn gyda ni i neud, ond dyna yw ein dyletswydd, mae Cymru yn haeddu dim llai.