Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-05-Speech-2-101"
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"en.20000905.8.2-101"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, you will shortly be adopting two regulations that are highly significant in budgetary terms, one being the regulation on budgetary discipline in the agricultural sector, and the other being the regulation on own resources, that is to say, the financing of the budget. On behalf of the Commission, I am able to tell you that we are most satisfied with the outcome of the discussions, and are delighted that these two difficult matters will soon be resolved.
I have just this to say about the requests for more posts: at the beginning of this year, the Commission set up a working group under the leadership of the President of the Commission, at my recommendation, which examined the tasks performed by all departments and completed a critical examination of the staffing situation. We ascertained where there was scope for reallocation of staff within and between the departments, with a view to improving the availability of resources for the key areas and for the political priorities, and in order to ascertain where we need to create new posts. Our findings are now available to you. The Commission has estimated that we need 1254 new posts for key activities and political priorities. We can create a vast number of these 1254 new posts through reallocation, which will mean requesting a total of 717 new posts – 400 in the year 2001 and 317 in the year 2002 – particularly if we are to strengthen the areas of external assistance, health and consumer protection and environmental policy, as well as justice and internal affairs.
In addition, we have proposed a one-off early retirement scheme for 600 posts, organised in such a way as to have no impact on the budget, which would drastically reduce the need for new posts. As an interim solution – particularly for the purposes of external assistance – we would ask the budgetary authority to allow us, until such time as a new administrative structure is created, to use the funding that has been available hitherto for the Technical Assistance Offices, for contract staff within the Commission. We would also like to increase funding for the delegations, which are to be more actively involved in the administration of external assistance in future.
The Commission has learnt from past mistakes, which boils down to making clear the fact that the Commission cannot perform miracles; all it can do is make it its business to perform to a high standard. And if we are to acquit ourselves well of our tasks, we need the necessary resources, including the necessary staffing resources.
On a final note, it is fair to say that there are very testing times ahead again for all those involved in the budgetary discussions. I hope we all find the energy and patience we need during this period to meet each other halfway and bring these discussions to a satisfactory conclusion.
However, the Commission takes a dim view of the outcome of the Council’s discussions on Budget 2001. Accordingly, I am bound to contradict the assessment of the President-in-Office. At first reading, the Council concentrated largely on cutting payment appropriations right across the board. The end result was the lowest draft budget of the past ten years, when considering the budget in relation to the EU’s Gross National Product.
Now I have already made it clear to this august Chamber on numerous occasions that the Commission considers budgetary discipline to be an extremely important guiding principle, but the Council’s approach, i.e. to cut payment appropriations irrespective of the level of commitments entered into in the past which are due for payment, does not constitute sound budgetary policy. The Council’s draft budget would cause the following to happen: the payment of arrears, i.e. the arrears of commitments entered into which have not yet been paid, would continue to mount up.
The Commission, on the other hand, supported by Parliament, would like to achieve the reverse, that is to reduce the arrears. I believe that since we are in the happy position in the European Union of having an economy with high growth rates, now is the time to cut the arrears back, not add to them.
The Council has cut payment appropriations in the agricultural policy sphere by more than half a billion euro compared with the Commission’s draft. This beggars belief considering the fierce criticism that certain of the larger Member States have levelled at the Commission, because we proposed to release EUR 300 million from agricultural policy in order to make the necessary payments in the Balkans available. Obviously the Council now considers there to be far greater scope for making cuts in agricultural expenditure, but it is not prepared to make the funds available for the new external policy priorities for the Balkans.
As happened last year, there was a very heated discussion on how much aid should be made available for the Balkans, and I would remind you that during the discussions on Budget 2000, the Council took the line that it would not be possible to release the appropriations for Kosovo in any case. Indeed, all the appropriations for Kosovo have in fact been tied up already. The Kosovo agency for reconstruction is proving highly successful in its work, and that is surely something we should all support.
I would like briefly to take up the matter of Serbia, which you also mentioned in your speech. The fact that no provision has been made for Serbia in the draft budget, or only to a very limited extent, sends out the wrong message in my view. We find ourselves in a situation where we are competing in political terms with the dictator Milosevic, and we must convince the people that the European Union is willing to provide assistance. I am standing firm on this: by the end of 2001 we should have EUR 800 million more at our disposal for the Western Balkans than we do at present. Part of this could perhaps be made additionally available before the end of this year. I hope to enlist your support in this matter.
Another word on foreign policy: the Budget Council has cut the funding for the Mediterranean programme – which is also something you mentioned – by EUR 150 million. Putting these cuts into effect would no longer just be a budgetary policy measure though, it would also constitute a change in the foreign policy in this field, a renunciation of the Barcelona process. The Commission believes this to be unacceptable.
Turning now to administrative expenditure, i.e. staffing expenditure: I would point out that the Commission did not request any new posts in its draft preliminary budget, apart from those for OLAF, the European anti-fraud agency. We have now submitted a letter of amendment containing two key points: firstly a request for 400 new posts for the Commission with effect from the year 2001, and secondly, budgetary measures which will enable us to do without the vast majority of Technical Assistance Offices, as per Parliament’s request, and, in particular, that of the Committee on Budgets."@en1
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