Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-11-Speech-2-148"
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"en.20011211.7.2-148"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let me just deal very briefly with some of the comments we have heard. Mr Colom i Naval suggested that the agreed amounts which are laid down in the multiannual programme should be index-linked. The Commission cannot endorse this view, because these appropriations must be adopted as absolute amounts. If we then have a different inflation rate, that naturally creates more leeway in Category III, which such a situation will quite obviously require, and of which Parliament will rightly avail itself.
Many comments related to the implementation of the budget. May I simply remind the House that a new instrument has been in place this year through which Parliament has been able to take part in the monitoring process, namely the weekly implementation figures issued by the Commission. This is the only Parliament that is kept so well abreast of the day-to-day expenditure situation. The Parliaments of the Member States do not have such an instrument. This is a genuine innovation, and we should certainly maintain it. For you, of course, it is a very important source of information, enabling you to observe how implementation is proceeding. I believe that what we have set down in the resolution is another important step towards close cooperation as part of a sound implementation process.
The third point that was raised in many of your contributions concerns the flexibility of the budget as a whole. How rigid is this system that the Financial Perspective gives us? It is undoubtedly noteworthy that this year, for the first time, the Council consented almost immediately to the use of flexibility instruments, of the flexibility reserve, in the budget. This really shows how important it is to have a balancing instrument, a fine-tuning instrument. But of course we must also ask the question whether that in itself is sufficient.
We are in the third year of the Financial Perspective. Much of what we have to do here together, it must be said, raises budgeting almost to the level of an art form. This is the third year that we have launched the budget together. I do believe we can be content once again with the result, which certainly stands up to scrutiny. On behalf of the Commission, I should like to repeat my sincere thanks to everyone who has been involved in this process."@en1
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