Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-28-Speech-3-197"
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"en.20011128.11.3-197"2
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". – Let me first of all thank you for the kind reaction from Parliament. The Commission requested the urgency procedure to establish a legal base for a financial commitment to the fund under this year's budget amending the legal base of budget line B7-6211 Aid for Poverty Related Diseases in Developing Countries. We proposed to transfer EUR 60 million to this line.
Thank you once again for the cooperative manner in which Parliament has handled this matter in spite of the difficulties that we have had.
This proposal is of high political importance as the fund has attracted wide interest and these are high hopes for its success. I agree with the content of comments by Mr Sylla and Mr Rod reflecting the fact that there are indeed many questions to be asked. We still have many unanswered questions. This is the real reason why it has not been easy or possible for the Commission to move this dossier forward in a very nice, elegant and timely manner. It has not yet been negotiated at international level, but we still need the budget operation that we are discussing tonight. I regret that the proposal was transmitted so late in the year to the budget authority but this reflects the fact that we did not have anything good or clear enough before that.
I appreciate your determination in Parliament to make this process a success, despite these procedural hurdles. I welcome the outcome of the discussions last week between the three institutions. I note that Parliament has made further efforts to take account of Council's wish for further changes in the recitals. The Commission can accept the oral amendment proposed by the honourable MEPs here today and for which you will vote tomorrow, in order to obtain a timely agreement by Council.
As regards accounting, auditing and reporting, we want this to be totally transparent vis-à-vis Parliament. I would however, for the sake of transparency, like to express some sort of warning because if the idea is to pool resources in a global fund, we must avoid becoming such a difficult partner in this work by insisting on our systems of reporting, our auditing and our accounting procedures. This is the problem we have already with other international organisations and where the Commission is an inadequate partner in many cases.
Some adaptability is also needed if we are to be a well-functioning partner in this endeavour. The Commission has no reservations as to the actual amendments presented here but we need to keep in mind that this is a collective effort and that is the whole core of the idea.
In reply to Mr Khanbhai's remarks that not one euro has been given here, let me say that every day we are pumping money into the fight against AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis. It would be a big mistake to think – and even worse to express – that the only thing we are doing is in relation to this fund. Everybody knows that this is not the case but we hope this fund will add something to the other ways in which we are working. That is what we are essentially trying to ensure in the negotiations taking place right now, to see if we can straighten out these contentious issues.
We are preparing a revised regulation for the B7-6211
budget line. This longer-term legal basis will serve as the base for implementation of the Programme for Action on Communicable Diseases in the years 2003-2006. It is proposed that future support to global initiatives such as the global fund would be financed from this budget line. We still have to discuss the level of funding. In the first reading of the Budget for 2002, Parliament proposed a new specific budget line for the fund from next year onwards but we have now agreed to regroup this specific budget line with the one for poverty diseases and use one integrated legal basis.
As I indicated before, the Commission wishes to continue exchanges with Parliament on the modalities and working methods of the fund over the coming period. The fund is expected to be up and running from January 2002 and all members of the fund's transitional working group are in discussion, trying to achieve consensus on a large number of outstanding and difficult issues. The Commission is trying to play a constructive and active role in these discussions and I look forward to reporting to Parliament on this process. I also look forward to working together with Parliament to make this new fund something which will actually increase the efficiency of our response to the struggle against these diseases.
Finally, let me reconfirm our proposal to allocate an addition EUR 60 million from the 9th EDF funds once the Cotonou Agreement is ratified and discussions have been finalised with the ACP Group. These funds will be earmarked for activities in ACP countries. I agree, this complicates, to some extent, the administrative function of a global fund, but I do not think we have any choice here. This is a fact of life and it is not the biggest problem we are facing."@en1
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