Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-22-Speech-2-113"
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"en.20021022.6.2-113"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in this debate on the first reading of the budget for the financial year 2003, I do not wish to focus on the technical aspects. Indeed, I have taken the floor on several occasions in recent months to condemn what I consider to be the shortcomings and historic inconsistencies of the Community budget such as the RALs or the financing of internal policies and external actions, and also to draw your attention to the specific problems which have only come to light in recent months such as, for example, the ceiling for the administrative expenditure heading, which is too low, and, more generally, the inadequacy of the Financial Perspective agreed in Berlin in 1999.
Today, I want to try and address the situation from a political perspective – if it can be described as such – rather than a technical perspective. At a historic time such as that we are currently experiencing, when the international system is continually changing, on the one hand, and with enlargement and the debate on the future of Europe taking place, on the other, I feel that we too, who are experts in financial matters, should start to think about the role we want the European Parliament to play.
The question is as follows: should we agree to be mere implementors of rules, rules for the most part written by others, or do we want to be able to change things? For example, how do we feel about the fact that the Council was able to obtain a legal basis from the Commission regarding the issue of natural disasters, for instance, which is an extremely important matter? Would we not also like to be in a position where we can contribute to the Commission’s work? Ladies and gentlemen, very often, we hide – and I am talking about us as a whole political class, of course – behind respect for rules and procedures without even attempting to make genuine changes to them or to the way they are applied. Changes that would be for the better, of course. This is the message I want to be conveyed as an addendum to this debate.
The 2003 budget is proving to be a good one, and I congratulate the rapporteurs on their commitment, all the effort they have put in and the results achieved, thanks, not least, to Commissioner Schreyer, the entire Commission structure, the secretariat and the draftsmen, but I can only emphasise that this is a technical budget in which our role has been primarily that of making the figures add up, lacking as we do the strength, the courage and the will to introduce genuine political measures.
It may be that we younger Members want to change the world sometimes, but, this time, I would be content just to change a few tiny elements of our European budget."@en1
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