Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-23-Speech-2-186"
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"en.20011023.7.2-186"2
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"Mr President, I will start by focusing primarily on the Seppänen report. This is a comprehensive report which addresses all the problems of the final stage of the ECSC’s life, but it also takes into account the problems of the future, if it is true – which it is – that, although the ECSC is dying, the coal and steel industry must continue to develop in Europe. The sum set aside for the ten remaining months of the ECSC budget is sufficient, and the increased appropriations for research are in line with the forecasts for after the Treaty’s expiry. Parliament wants to play a leading part in our endeavours to give a reassuring response to the 357 000 workers who are employed in the sector and to provide a secure future in terms of the growth and restructuring of the sector.
I would now like to focus, in the last part of my speech, on the Union’s general budget. As the members of my group have already said, starting with the coordinator, Mr Ralf Walter, our opinion of the work carried out by Mr Costa Neves and Mrs Buitenweg is positive. There are many elements which deserve a mention here: the undertaking to improve the quality and speed of expenditure, and here I refer to the Structural Funds, which require an extraordinary measure from the European institutions to motivate, coordinate and carry out prospective and retrospective assessments so that European federalism does not fail this major test; the attention given to the issue of border regions, mentioned by Commissioner Schreyer – I, too, agree with Mr Böge when he says that it is right to clarify the concept of a border region – not least in relation to the enlargement process: regions which must not be the only ones to benefit, Commissioner, and I would stress this point, for the pilot project approved last year does not and must not, as it progresses, just concern the border regions.
We have got off to a good start: the negotiations will take place and I feel that, ultimately, we will achieve a sound budget, but when I think of this great asset which is Europe, an asset which is ours and ours alone, a supranational political entity which others look to for guidance, as they will have to in the face of fresh challenges, I wonder whether we really ought not to review the financial mechanisms of the European budget if we want to consolidate a great supranational institution which is the envy of all and which needs more resources and a role that is more clearly defined."@en1
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