Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-06-Speech-3-304"
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"en.20020206.12.3-304"2
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"Mr President, the Musotto report is a good report. The overall thrust is quite correct. The purpose of Cohesion Funds is to counteract the natural centrifugal forces of a large single economic and monetary unit, which is what the European Union and the euro zone are, by helping the less advantaged regions come up to the level of the more prosperous ones. This is the point: if the less advantaged remain less advantaged, the Cohesion Funds will have failed in their purpose. But that is why, contrary to what Mr Mussotto and the Committee on Regional Policy demand, we should stick to the 75% of average Community GNP as a graduation point. Having reached that level the pump will have been adequately primed and the graduating region, with a suitable transitional process, should be well able to continue up the escalator to 100% and higher. Surely it is only reasonable that at that point these Cohesion Fund resources should be reallocated to those regions which lie further behind. That is why I will vote against recitals O and R of Mr Musotto's report.
There must also be financial discipline. An open-ended honey pot is not conducive to encouraging self-help and self-reliance. This is why I cannot countenance leaving open-ended the possibility of an even higher percentage of European Union GDP being committed to cohesion policies. 0.45% should be quite adequate and will make us hone our priorities and procedures, even in the context of enlargement. So the second half of paragraph 57, or any compromise of similar effect which leaves the amount be made available open-ended, is not acceptable.
Given these small but significant changes I will be very pleased to support Mr Musotto's report as an important contribution to the future well-being of all parts of our European Union."@en1
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