Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-12-Speech-2-024"
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"en.20020312.3.2-024"2
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"Mr President, let me also begin by thanking my fellow rapporteur, Mr Färm, for his sound cooperation so far.
There are three priorities in the guidelines for the administrative budget on which we now have to adopt a position. The first is enlargement. That is the most important priority and the greatest challenge for the entire EU, and it is therefore also the most important issue for which the European Parliament and the other institutions have to prepare. The second priority is institutional reforms, which will become vital in an enlarged EU which will soon comprise 25, rather than 15, Member States. Thirdly, it is about completing enlargement and the institutional reforms within the financial framework laid down in the financial perspective in Berlin in 1999. We must respect these limits and manage the EU’s budget within them.
Because we have a deficit in the region of EUR 130 million to EUR 140 million so far, we need a strategy for managing this. In the short term, it is entirely possible to deal with this. The solution will involve cutbacks in all the institutions. This is also the most important message I have the opportunity to convey at all my meetings and in all my contacts with the various institutions of the EU. It gives them the chance to set their priorities in a way that respects the fact that they themselves know best what can be done in their own areas. If they are unwilling to do this, we will have to set the priorities ourselves but the result may not be as good.
In the longer term, more systematic changes are needed in the budget in order to cope with a constantly increasing deficit. We had an informal trialogue in Madrid just under a week ago. There is no doubt that, at least in terms of putting it into words, there is a broad understanding of the size of the problem in both the Commission and the Council. Despite this, the Commission is clearly prepared to look for the simplest possible solution, namely that of using the flexibility instrument to inject extra funds into heading 5. I must emphasise that this is a solution with an extraordinarily large number of drawbacks. For all of us who do not work within an anonymous Commission but instead have to meet our voters on a daily basis, it would in actual fact be impossible to look these voters in the eye and, at the same time, explain that the EU needs more money to employ more bureaucrats in Brussels. That would just not be on.
With precisely this in mind, it is incredibly important that the European Parliament demonstrate firmness and consistency in its position and in encouraging all the institutions to contribute to budget reductions.
Let me say a few words about the most important priorities in the report. When it comes to enlargement, a number of issues are particularly important. The first is language and the right of every Member of this Parliament to be treated in the same way as all the others. There are in fact only two options. Either we must all speak the same language or each of us must be allowed to speak our own language. If I, as a Swede, have the right to speak Swedish and a Portuguese Member has the right to speak Portuguese, then a Hungarian Member must be allowed to speak Hungarian and a Lithuanian to speak Lithuanian. The Committee on Budgets has backed what the Podestà Group calls controlled multilingualism. At the same time, we urge the working party to revise its proposal and produce its conclusions in time before the budget for 2003 has to be adopted.
Enlargement will also entail the need for investment in buildings, offices and interpreting booths. All of this is particularly difficult as we are unaware of what the scope of enlargement will be. We will not be aware of this until the Copenhagen Summit in December. If enlargement is to begin to be implemented with ten countries in January 2004, we have an incredible amount to do in the space of only 21 months. In fact, we have even less time as the new Member States will be entitled to send observers immediately the agreements are signed. This means we might only have just under a year. A great deal remains to be done in this time. Therefore, everything that has to be done must also be given the absolute highest priority."@en1
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