Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-20-Speech-3-078"
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"en.20020320.6.3-078"2
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"Mr President, as rapporteur for this year’s budget, I have a number of matters to address in that connection.
First of all, I am really not as critical as Mrs Roth-Behrendt. I think it is important for us now to acquire an annual policy strategy which also constitutes the Commission’s guideline for next year’s budget. At present, all the institutions issue their guidelines in the spring, and the hope now exists that the Commission will also base its draft budget on ideas from the Council and Parliament. If so, that would be a clear improvement.
Secondly, quite a few MEPs have pointed out that we need to strengthen the link between the Commission’s legislative programme and the issues concerning the budget. Up until now, we have all too often ended up in a position in which we have obtained draft laws and proposals for new programs and expenditure and for setting up new institutions and so on, with no account being taken of the budgetary process and the financial consequences. It is especially in the sphere of foreign policy that a variety of promises are given. There is still a fair amount to be done in this area, but this year’s process is nonetheless a step in the right direction.
Thirdly, we can at least be pleased about the section on interinstitutional cooperation. If it is going to be possible to create an EU that operates well, such cooperation and confidence are crucial.
It is therefore a source of deep concern to us to learn now that discussions of the new budget regulation, designed to reduce Parliament’s influence, are being held within the Council. The Council’s budget committee is discussing reducing our opportunities to place sums in the reserve and to influence supplementary and amending budgets and so forth. If the Council continues along those lines, it will call the institutional balance into question in a way that Parliament will never accept voluntarily.
Fourthly, I want to address a factual matter. It is gratifying that all the institutions are now highlighting enlargement, which is of course the most important task for our time. I hope that, by no later than the budget conciliation in July, we shall be able to agree upon how we are to handle next year’s administrative expenditure in such a way as to facilitate the preparations, partly by providing aid to construction, working on the language issues, deciding what staff need to be appointed and determining what regulations need to be drawn up if we are to be able to accept observers in our political groups.
If all the institutions contribute by regarding these matters as important, we shall in actual fact have a chance of reaching such an agreement by no later than July. That would be an enormous boost.
Finally, I hope that, before the negotiations are completed, the Council and the Commission will also institute an exhaustive discussion with Parliament concerning the long-term economic consequences of enlargement. I really do believe in enlargement, but we must not conceal from the taxpayers the fact that there is a price to pay. That is a matter which must be taken seriously."@en1
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