Thank you very much indeed, and I take great pleasure in welcoming you to my home City of Armagh. The ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.
It is here that I first got involved in politics as a Young Unionist, then as a councillor, MP and MLA for the area
And can I take this opportunity to say again to our councillors - thank you for the hours you put in.
And to all our candidates in the local elections, I look forward to joining you on the campaign trail next year - it looks like I will have some time on my hands come the 29th of March!
So I feel it is fitting that it is here in Armagh that I speak to you at the close of what will be my thirty years of serving Northern Ireland in Europe.
It goes without saying that I have witnessed much change over these last three decades.
When I first was elected to the European Parliament, the EU was made up of only 12 Member States and soon after, the Berlin Wall came down and the iron curtain disappeared.
It eventually expanded to 28 Member States – now soon to be 27.
And then we come on to the B word. Brexit.
It probably goes without saying that the United Kingdom has had a complicated relationship with the European Union.
The UK was always at its best when taking the lead in Europe - be it in the creation of the single market, standing by our allies in central and Eastern Europe against communism and continuing to do so against Vladimir Putin.
But it is also true that we were never comfortable with further integration in the way some our European neighbours are.
We liked being in a common free trading area, and enjoying the benefits of close diplomatic relations with our immediate neighbours – but we never felt a common currency, common foreign policy or an EU army was necessary, for example.
I always described myself as a Euro-realist.
I still do.
When I took the decision to support a “remain” vote, I went with the head not with the heart.
I have to say, in truth, neither side in that referendum covered itself in glory.
And I wonder, those who said Brexit would lead us to the land of milk and honey, are they still so confident?
But amidst all the warnings about economic difficulty and instability, my main worry was that our own Union could be jeopardised in a worst case scenario.
I had my view.
I expressed my view.
But the people of the United Kingdom made their view very clear.
So when we woke up to the news on the 24th June 2016 that the people had voted to leave, there was only one responsible thing for any democrat to do:
Respect the result and get the best deal possible for Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom as a whole.
A Brexit that respects the referendum result, maintains the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom, keeps a frictionless border with our neighbours in the Republic of Ireland and free trade with the continent.
Since then, we have been working in Brussels and Strasbourg to help achieve these aims.
Using networks we have built up over the years, lobbying Member State diplomats, senior European Commission officials and fellow MEPs.
Barely 6 months after that vote, it was becoming clear to me that the EU was going to take a hard line on the issue of the UK’s border with the Republic of Ireland – and that it saw a border down the Irish Sea as being the solution.
In private and then in public I warned the Government about this. Bear in mind this was almost a year before the first so-called backstop agreement.
And it goes without saying that a number of these Ministers are no longer in post – they are instead sitting on the back benches.
I have to say, these concerns were dismissed. They said they had heard no such thing in any discussions and it would never happen.
And that is when I really started to worry.
As 2017 wore on, and the Republic of Ireland had a change of leadership, it was clear that this idea was taking a firm hold.
Whether you voted remain or leave in the referendum, cutting off Northern Ireland from the rest of the country will never be an acceptable solution.
While unionist views on what we now know as the EU’s backstop have been aired many times over the past number of days, it is worth repeating the core points.
The same points we were making while others were dismissing it as ‘scare mongering’.
Great Britain is our most important market for sales.
The UK single market is absolutely vital across sectors for Northern Ireland.
Our supply chains are not only north-south but east-west.
And remember, this is also true of the Republic of Ireland, who have the most to lose if we end up in a “no deal” scenario.
But beyond the economic arguments the fact is that the matter is constitutional.
Keeping Northern Ireland in the EU single market or customs union, while allowing Great Britain to diverge means our laws and regulations on these areas are not decided by us locally.
The would not even be decided by our own Government at Westminster.
The UK will no longer be sitting at the European Council table. It will have no MEPs.
And Northern Ireland would have no voice.
We did not stand against joint authority with Dublin only to end up with Dublin and 26 other Governments making our decisions for us.
I make no apologies for putting this unionist case forward in the European Parliament, and in meetings with Michel Barnier and other EU leaders.
Unionists cannot rely on others to make our arguments for us.
But it was always the case that an Irish Sea border could only ever happen if our own Government agreed to it.
The next real warning sign was December 2017.
Over a weekend of confusion between the Government and the DUP, and a rushed phone call at lunch time, a backstop deal was hatched.
At the time, many thought it was a fair compromise.
Text outlining that it would be for the whole UK rather than just Northern Ireland was included.
But between the now infamous paragraphs 49 and 50 there was a worrying sense of constructive ambiguity.
Among the public cheerleaders for the December deal were the then Foreign Secretary and Brexit Secretary.
And of course the DUP
I worried it was only a fudge.
I worried that if talks didn’t move to trade quickly, we were just kicking the can down the road to further difficulty.
Then came March.
The EU published its draft withdrawal treaty, with provisions for a Northern Ireland-only backstop that would consider Northern Ireland to be in the customs territory of the EU, not the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland would have to adopt swathes of EU single market legislation and regulation.
Not only do these proposals pose serious risk to our economy, they would violate the principle of consent. The very heart of the Belfast Agreement they claim they want to protect.
Theresa May could not have been clearer at the time. She said she would not accept these proposals. She would not break up our country.
In fact she said it would be unacceptable to any British Prime Minister.
But for me there has been a real sense of deja-vu.
I have seen all this before.
In 1984, when I was MP for Newry and Armagh, I listened to Margaret Thatcher give her press conference after the Anglo-Irish summit.
She said “I have made it quite clear... that a unified Ireland was one solution. That is out. A second solution was confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out.”
Out, Out, Out.
And yet a year later the betrayal came with the Anglo Irish Agreement.
I will never forget sitting in the House of Commons as the late Harold McCusker gave one of the greatest speeches in the history of Unionism.
And when he described on that day the hurt he felt at this betrayal by his own Government, he spoke for Ulster.
As Michel Barnier likes to say, the “clock is ticking” on Brexit.
But there is still time for Theresa May to stand by the commitments she has made that there would be no internal UK border.
These were commitments from the Government even before the 2017 snap election.
It is true that Brussels has been very adept at using the border issue to make life difficult for our Prime Minister.
Now we are talking about backstops to the backstops. This is going from the ridiculous to the sublime.
Some would have us believe that the only options left are an Irish Sea border or no deal.
Both of these options have serious implications for Northern Ireland and for the Union itself.
Now is the time for Unionists across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to come together.
No deal might be better than a bad deal, but a good deal can still even now be agreed.
There is no point in rushing through a bad deal for the sake of getting something over the line.
At the same time, extending transition is far from ideal.
We would be paying into the EU as full members without any representation or decision making powers.
I can see why Brussels likes that idea!
Both parties should take stock and look at other ways of resolving the border issue.
The backstop idea was supposed to speed up progress.
Instead, the opposite has been the case and now negotiations are teetering over the edge.
Whether you were a remainer or a leaver is of no consequence today. This is the very future of Northern Ireland we are talking about.
When we do leave the European Union we will have a lot of serious work to do in Northern Ireland.
On Agriculture for example, the United Kingdom will have to shape its new policy on food and farming, as we come out of the CAP after 40 years.
As these powers come back from Brussels, we will of course need some form of common UK framework, but as it is a devolved area we also need the implementation to be tailor made at regional level.
To do that, we need to get Stormont up and running.
And this is true not just in agriculture, but in health, education, the environment and across the piece.
For too long, the big two parties have left us ungoverned locally.
Brexit has been a convenient excuse.
But if we try to set aside some of our differences and work together, great things can be achieved.
For 15 years of my time in Brussels, my Northern Ireland MEP colleagues were John Hume and Ian Paisley.
To say the three of us did not always see eye to eye would be an understatement!
But when it came to Northern Ireland PLC, we worked together.
And to me there is no better example of that than in 1994. Just after the loyalist ceasefires, we met with Jacques Delors who was then the European Commission President.
He shared our optimism that Northern Ireland would move to a new beginning away from violence and pledged EU financial support.
And he was true to his word. Weeks later, 240 million pounds of European funding for peace building was approved. By 2020, Northern Ireland and the border region of the Republic will have received more than 2 billion euros in PEACE funding alone.
As we build our new relationship with the EU when we leave, let us continue to work in that spirit of co-operation.
It is no secret that over the past two years, relationships on these islands have deteriorated. But as I look back at how things have changed over the last 40 years, we can never go back to the acrimony of the past.
As a country, and as a party, we should be confident in ourselves.
This could well be my last time speaking to the Ulster Unionist Party conference as your MEP.
As I said at the beginning, I started out as a Young Unionist here in Armagh.
I have been an Ulster Unionist all my life. And I will continue to be for as long as the good Lord spares me!
Thank you very much.