Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-24-Speech-2-201"
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"en.20020924.10.2-201"2
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".
Mr President, first of all, I would like to come back to Mr Laschet's question regarding Parliament's proposal to set up a separate budget line for Afghanistan. We welcome this for reasons of visibility, but suggest that in return, so to speak, East Timor be reintegrated into the ECHO budget line so that the overall number of budget lines does not increase.
As regards the issue of the Global Health Fund, which has again played a major role in this debate, I should point out that of the pledges made by the various donors, almost two-thirds come from Europe, in other words, from the European Union and from the Member States direct. This is a high proportion. The proposal we made in the budget plan – and we really gave this matter very careful thought – to include 35 million in the budget line at this stage is, in our view, adequate. However, we also said that if it is not enough to keep our seat, we will have to see what measures need to be taken. So far, there has been no sign from the other donors to suggest that this figure is inadequate at the present time. Nonetheless, it should be stated clearly once again that securing the seat on the board was a major priority.
Let me turn briefly to Mr Lagendijk's question regarding the Special Envoy. This is indeed an issue which concerns the budget for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. As you know, the Commission has already proposed increasing the funding by one-third, specifically to finance the shared costs of the International Police Task Force in Bosnia. However, we appeal very strongly for adequate funding for measures from the rapid reaction mechanism to be included once again in the Commission's budget plan. The Council had cut this area, and we would welcome it if Parliament could restore the funding here.
Now to the issue of TACIS. In view of the fact that in category 4, i.e. foreign policy, we only have a very small margin available overall, we must decide whether there will be further cuts here. However, I would also like to appeal for us, as part of the enlargement process in 2004, to focus particularly on ways of boosting cross-border cooperation with our new neighbours in the East post-enlargement.
Finally, a brief word on the implementation of the budget. I should point out that for this year too, we have achieved a higher rate of implementation in category 4 than was the case last year. The numerous measures adopted by my colleagues Mr Nielson and Mr Patten at administrative level, namely the adoption of new structures to facilitate more rapid implementation, are genuinely having an impact on the budget figures. I think this shows that the reform efforts are proving very successful and the assistance is reaching its target more quickly."@en1
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