Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-13-Speech-2-159"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030513.8.2-159"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, rapporteurs, observers from the accession countries, it is a great pleasure to be here today to present the 2004 preliminary draft budget in this new setting. The 2004 Budget is a truly historic one. For the first time it covers 25 Member States. From 1 May 2004, the new Member States will participate in all of the support programmes in the European budget. It is also the first time that an enlargement is not taking place on 1 January of a particular year, but rather later in the year. This presents a particular challenge for the budget. From 1 January to the end of April we will have a budget for an EU of 15; thereafter it will be increased for the EU of 25. The budget plans therefore contain both the figures for the EU of 15 and those for the enlarged Union, but all of our deliberations will from the outset be in respect of the European Union of 25 Member States.
In the enlarged Union the Structural Funds as a whole will play a very significant role. They are of course the main instruments through which we grant financial support so as to speed up and support the process of economic convergence. That is why we provide for an overall increase in commitment appropriations of 20.8% for the Structural Funds. A large proportion of this is allocated to the Cohesion Fund, which of course provides funds specifically for cofinancing transport and environmental protection infrastructure.
The greatest increase is for internal policies, in what is termed Category 3. Overall, an increase of 27% in commitment appropriations is provided for here. This is partly due to the fact that Parliament asked for additional room for manoeuvre in this particular area. Category 3 of the budget is of course characterised by all of our political priorities: enlargement, stability and sustainable growth.
For the new Member States, funds are, in the first instance, made available to enable them to participate in existing Community programmes, which they already do in some cases. In accordance with the decisions made in Copenhagen, funds will also be made available for completely new programmes in the enlargement countries: EUR 317 million for implementing the Schengen Agreement, that is, for building the necessary infrastructure to secure the external border; EUR 221 million for increasing administrative capacity in the accession countries and EUR 138 million for decommissioning nuclear power stations.
Overall, the preliminary draft budget provides for very high increases for promoting an area of security, freedom and justice. Research expenditure is also permitted to grow next year to EUR 4.8 billion. This shows that, in the enlarged Union too, supporting the Lisbon objectives of developing a knowledge-based society enjoys a very high priority in the European budget.
Many support programmes such as research, environmental protection and youth exchanges, to name but a few, are multiannual programmes that are adopted by codecision. That is why new provisions will have to be made for the coming years, that is for the time that these programmes have left to run, to take account of enlargement. The Commission has tabled proposals for topping up these programmes and we should aim to make the decisions on adapting them to enlargement as quickly as possible, so that we can plan for this. This is of course particularly important for the accession countries.
In its proposal the Commission has taken into account Parliament's priorities as set out in the opinions of the individual committees and contained in the report by Mr Colom i Naval and Mr Böge.
As regards foreign policy measures, the Commission is proposing to enter into commitments worth almost EUR 5 billion, which is in line with 2003 levels. For the Balkans, just to mention a few points, the level of aid should stabilise after the years of reconstruction. The funds are available for this. This is also a clear indication of the European Union's commitments in this region. In the interests of having a more intensive neighbourhood policy, the Commission is also proposing to increase funds for the MEDA Programme, namely by 14%, and for Afghanistan the funds are to be adjusted in line with pledges made at international level. Two countries, Bulgaria and Romania, are still in the pre-accession category of the group of countries with which negotiations have not yet been concluded. All of the institutions have pledged to grant more aid to these States, so that they can achieve their aim of joining the Union in 2007. In the coming year, an increase of 20% in the aid for Bulgaria and Romania is provided for. For Turkey, the funds in the pre-accession strategy are also being substantially increased, and I very much hope that the funds for supporting reforms will be able to be used. Finally, I should mention that next year so-called freestanding lump-sum payments, or cash facilities, of EUR 1.4 billion will be made to the new Member States.
Administrative expenditure will have to be adapted to the new requirements. The Commission's proposals contain 780 new posts for the Commission; this is in line with the plan that we presented to you last year and is intended to ensure firstly that we can manage expenditure on enlargement, secondly that colleagues from the new Member States can gradually be incorporated in the administration and thirdly that we can also cope with the extra languages.
Although the preliminary draft budget contains, as a whole, some very ambitious spending programmes, the principle of budgetary discipline also needs to be observed, and the Commission proposal does so. Overall, the Commission's proposed preliminary draft budget is EUR 3.4 billion below the ceiling for commitment appropriations and is well below the ceiling for payment appropriations. With the exception of the Structural Funds, the preliminary draft budget leaves margins, that is room for manoeuvre, in all areas. The budget as a percentage of the EU's economic output, that is the European State share, will even fall this year compared with last year, below 1%. This shows that both ambitious spending programmes and enlargement on the one hand and budgetary discipline on the other can be accommodated.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are going to be very many new aspects to the budgetary procedure that lies before us. This will require all of us to make a great effort, but the decisions that have already been made in the past mean that we have a good basis on which to work, and I think that the wonderful fact alone that this will be the first budget for the enlarged Union will spur all of us on so that we can achieve a good outcome in December. Thank you very much!
The third exceptional feature of this budget is that the European Union's budgetary reform is now fully in force and for the first time the official budget will be broken down by policy area, that is in accordance with the principle of activity-based budgeting. The budget is however still available to the budgetary authority in its traditional form for information. In addition, you also have a new working document, which states the targets that are to be met over the next year for each policy area. This 2004 budgetary procedure will therefore certainly be an innovative one.
The Commission's preliminary draft budget was subject to the framework that was newly established for the financial perspective in view of enlargement, as adopted by the European Parliament on 9 April, which of course incorporates the results of Copenhagen, that is the results of the negotiations between the Council and the applicant countries, as well as the results of the negotiations between the Council and Parliament.
At this stage I should like once again to thank all of those who were involved in the negotiations. It was very good that nearly all of the issues surrounding the financial framework in connection with enlargement were cut and dried before the accession treaties were signed and before the beginning of the 2004 budgetary procedure, so that all of the decisions regarding the framework had been made.
What then are the key figures for the 2004 preliminary draft budget? In 2004, commitment appropriations will increase to EUR 112 billion, of which EUR 11.8 billion are earmarked for commitments in the new Member States. According to our proposal, the European Union of 15 Member States will only receive an increase of 0.7%, which takes into account the political priorities of stability and sustainable growth.
Expenditure, that is payments, will, according to the Commission proposal, total EUR 100.6 billion in 2004. That is a moderate increase of 3.3% on the 2003 Budget. This relatively moderate increase is possible because of a 2% fall in the budget provisions for expenditure for the EU of 15. The reason for this is that fewer payment appropriations are needed in the Structural Funds next year than have been this year because the final payments for the old programmes are entered in this year's budget.
Of the total budget of EUR 100 billion that we are proposing, payments of EUR 5 billion are set aside for the new Member States. In addition, payments from the pre-accession programmes will also continue to flow into the accession countries next year, so that overall we guarantee that all of the new Member States are net beneficiaries, as was of course intended at the beginning of the negotiations.
Agricultural expenditure – I now turn to the individual categories – is estimated at EUR 48 billion. Incidentally, in 2004 the reform of agricultural policy will only be visible in a few specific areas, for example in the milk sector; all of the other effects will only be felt later on. Of the total of EUR 48 billion, EUR 6.5 billion is earmarked for supporting rural development, EUR 1.7 billion of which for the new Member States. Overall, next year's agriculture budget has two unusual features as far as the new Member States are concerned: firstly, the fact that direct payments to farmers in the new Member States will only take effect in the budget in 2005, because of course we have a time lag in the rules here. The second unusual feature is that support for developing rural areas in the new Member States is substantially higher – disproportionately so – than it is in the EU of 15. A further peculiarity is that the programmes providing support for rural development in the new Member States are so-called differentiated expenditure. This decision takes account of the fact that the administrative capacity to manage the programmes first has to be built.
As regards the agriculture budget, I might say that, as it does every year, the Commission will also be tabling a letter of amendment to the 2004 Budget in October. This will take into account the latest assessments of developments on the markets and of course also the fact that at the moment there is a great deal of movement in the euro-dollar exchange rate, which of course also influences overall agricultural expenditure."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples