Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-23-Speech-2-184"
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"en.20011023.7.2-184"2
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"Mr President, at the first reading of the 2002 budget, we would like to express our reservations about a number of amendments tabled by the European Parliament and which put increasing pressure on spending in order to meet, as explained in the motion for a resolution – and I quote ‘the legitimate expectations of citizens, regions and governments of the European Union’.
Go on, blame the citizens! In the few minutes’ speaking time that I have, I will give one example; that of the B3-500 budget line, to which the European Parliament would like to allocate EUR 7 million in order to fund the so-called European political parties. This appropriation is without legal basis and has no moral justification. Of course, the citizens have never given their opinion on this, but if we asked them if they want to pay more taxes to fund political parties in Brussels, they would obviously say no. On the other hand, the MEPs would say yes, as this is of great interest to them. These European political parties are inter-party organisations that have no militant base to speak of. Their funding – provided thus far by the parliamentary groups of this House out of their administrative appropriations – has been the subject of a recent report published by the Court of Auditors. Because of this, the so-called European parties are seeking other sources of funding. And since the citizens do not seem to want to pay of their own accord, we are going to make them pay by means of tax and social security deductions, so that they have no choice.
For reasons that I have already explained during our debate on the Schleicher report on 17 May 2001, and in my explanation of vote given on the same day, the B3-500 budget line has no legal basis, no more than the draft regulation on the status and funding of European political parties. The Council has still not reached agreement on this regulation. Admittedly, the Treaty of Nice provides the possibility of a legal basis by adding a second sub-paragraph to Article 191 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, but there is no need to remind you – especially in the wake of the negative outcome of the Irish referendum – that there is still a long way to go before this Treaty can be ratified. Lastly, the draft regulation without legal basis and currently being examined by the Council aims to put in place an underhand funding system that runs counter to freedoms. To cap everything, the chairs of the five European parties have recently written to Council and to the Commission to demand that the funding from Europe is increased to EUR 15 million instead of EUR 7 million. Such is inflation!
We believe that the political parties in Europe must be freely financed by citizens and by the national political parties, who are themselves funded according to national regulations in line with their respective legal system and constitution.
That is why, Mr President, the MEPs of the
group, along with the Members of the
group, will vote against the B3-500 budget line."@en1
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"SOS Démocratie"1
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