Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-22-Speech-2-137"
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"en.20021022.6.2-137"2
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"Madam President, as I mentioned in the previous plenary session, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs largely welcomed the Council’s first reading of the Commission’s draft budget.
It is also true that the committee feels that the EU budget for 2003 is considerably more modest than it has been in recent years. As we all know, this is due to the fact that the considerable information initiatives financed by the EU budget ahead of the introduction of the single currency are now behind us. However, I will return to this issue in a moment.
Our committee proposed a very modest number of amendments to the budget and I was greatly disappointed that these were almost entirely rejected by the Committee on Budgets. As I said, the requirements were very small and should have been acceptable, particularly in the case of the committee’s position and proposal regarding the PRINCE programme and in particular its sub-section B5-3061: information initiatives relating to the single currency.
There was broad agreement within the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs that the information initiatives should be concentrated on those countries which have not yet introduced the single currency and, to a certain extent, also on candidate countries, which will introduce the single currency one day. The fact that this amendment was rejected becomes even more regrettable when we consider that at least one, and perhaps more, of the current Member States is highly likely to hold a referendum on the single currency next year. With this in mind, it seems logical that the funds should be earmarked for these countries, rather than being spent on information initiatives of questionable benefit in the countries which have already been highly successful in introducing the single currency. It is difficult for me to see what use information measures may have in these countries where the euro is already a reality and part of everyday life. As Wim Duisenberg, chairman of the European Central Bank, says, the Central Bank has never had any problem selling its product.
I share this view and believe that these measures can be taken by each country which has introduced the euro without any contribution from the EU budget."@en1
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