Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-29-Speech-3-160"
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"en.20000329.9.3-160"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, first may I extend my warmest congratulations to Mr Ferber and Mrs Haug on the work which they have carried out. In the first year in which the full budgetary procedure comes to fruition, we are all bound to be highly enthusiastic. Everyone wants to have their say, as we have seen in the very active and lively debates over recent days and weeks.
The Union budget of EUR 90 billion represents so many hopes, the hopes of people looking for support. They may be farmers in the European Union, who obviously want appropriate remuneration, a just reward, which they have earned, for producing healthy food. They may be the regions in Europe which are lagging behind in terms of economic development and which expect much from the solidarity of the European Union, namely assistance to help them develop into a balanced system of cohesion within the European Union, as far as living and working conditions are concerned.
There are the hopes of the unemployed, who want us to support them along the path back to work. There are the hopes of the young, there are hopes throughout the world, in which we, as the rich continent of Europe, and we are the rich continent of Europe, can give assistance. And there are hopes at the heart of Europe, where we have a cancerous growth called war, where there are people who are forced to live in appalling conditions, people who need a future, people who need hope.
We do not want any curious divisions of tasks, as are presently becoming apparent, when this money is distributed over the coming weeks and months. It is becoming apparent that there are people on the one side who are making promises left, right and centre and raising their estimates. Contrary to what has been said here time and again, agricultural spending will not fall, it will rise by nearly 5% or even more than 5% next year. We must not upset the farmers too much in this European Union. We cannot have a situation in which people on the one side, i.e. the Council, promise money and increase the sums involved and then come to us in Parliament and say, be sure to keep overall expenditure down, make cuts in all areas and tell all other ‘hopefuls’ that there is nothing for them. This division of tasks is unacceptable.
Nor can we have a situation in which the international community sits down at the donor conference, promises money and says to Kosovo and everyone living in the Balkans, we will support you, you will get money for what you want. In future, excavators will be rattling past, not tanks. You must be able to reconstruct and we want to help you. We cannot have a situation in which they promise so much and then come and say, take the money we need from the most needy. That cannot be.
We have stretched out our hand. Mrs Haug has stretched out her hand. She has said that we are prepared to work openly with the Council and the Commission. We want to show you that there is no need for a repeat of last year’s tragedy, with heckling and confrontation throughout the entire budgetary procedure. We can work together. You should know that. Take the outstretched hand. But I say quite clearly at this point that, if you signal that you are not prepared to cooperate with us and that we are on course for a confrontation, then this Parliament is not defenceless or powerless and we shall use our powers for the people who place their hopes in us and we shall certainly not disappoint them. Take the outstretched hand and do not engage in the same pettiness as last year, because it damages all of us in Europe, including the people who pin their hopes on us."@en1
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