Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-26-Speech-2-026"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-10-26"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:EC and ECSC budgets for 20002
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19991026.2.2-026"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-10-26-Speech-2-0272
lpv:speaker	lp:Mark Francis Watts2
lpv:spoken text	". – Mr President, on behalf of the Committee on Regional Policy and Transport and Tourism I would like to endorse warmly the approach adopted by the general rapporteur, Mr Bourlanges. In particular I would like to thank him for the attention he has paid to liaising with my committee over recent months and our predecessors in the past year. My committee has advanced five budget priorities: Objective 1, 2, Interreg, transport safety and sustainable mobility. I will deal with the regional policy priorities first. I agree with the general rapporteur’s comment that the cuts to Structural Fund appropriations are completely unacceptable. So what are the cuts proposed by the Council? The Council is proposing that the payment appropriations are cut by EUR 433 million for Objective 1, EUR 95 million for Objective 2 and EUR 33 million for Interreg. This Parliament enthusiastically endorsed the Agenda 2000 Structural Fund programme. We expect the new Structural Fund programmes to be launched in the coming year with a flying start. This simply will not be possible if these cuts proceed. The Council is advocating a reduction in advance payments to new programmes to just 3.5%. In contrast, this Parliament has previously considered that advance payments at the time of first commitment should be in excess of 10% of total funds. In our view, if these cuts proceed regional regeneration will be put at risk. Existing programmes will stall before they are transformed into new programmes. Momentum will be lost. Inevitably the poorest communities in the poorest regions will suffer the most. The bottom line is that new jobs will not be created and existing jobs will be put at risk. My committee has proposed 100% restoration of these three budget lines to the level of the provisional draft budget. This EUR 561 million increase in Structural Fund appropriations will allow us to honour properly historic commitments and ensure the new Agenda 2000 programmes hit the ground running. We also endorse, incidentally, the proposed 20% entry into reserve pending the successful outcome of our discussions over the guidelines. I will now turn briefly if I may to transport and just say to members that I hope they are able to support the Committee on Budgets’ moves to restore the cuts to the transport safety line and the cuts to the line on sustainable mobility. I would like to conclude by thanking all my colleagues on the committee for the support they have given me through this budget process."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	vice-chair; Delegation to the EU-Malta Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 member; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; PES (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 substitute; EMPL (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Labour Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; PETI (1999-09-16--2002-01-14)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Watts (PSE ),"1 "draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism"1

Named graphs describing this resource:

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph