Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-16-Speech-2-155"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-12-16"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Draft 2004 budget as amended by the Council and Letters of Amendment 1,2,[amp] 3/20042
dcterms:Language	"de"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20031216.4.2-155"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-12-16-Speech-2-1562
lpv:speaker	lp:Armin Laschet2
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Delegation to the EU-Poland Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002-03-07--2004-04-30)3 unknown; Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Estonia Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002-02-07--2004-04-30)3 member; EPP-ED (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3 substitute; BUDG (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as the final speaker for my group before the rapporteur, I wish to pay tribute to the major consensus which we have achieved here. However, I also have a number of critical comments concerning the manner in which the Group of the Party of European Socialists has liaised with the press during this budget procedure. The basic question is this. Can the budget be used for political purposes? Can we place items in the reserve in order to achieve political goals? We seem to be doing so in a wide variety of areas, Mr Walter. We are doing so in Afghanistan, because we have said: ‘Various things that this House views as desirable are not happening in Afghanistan. We have the impression that the Commission is downplaying the importance of combating the drugs trade. Please supply us with the information about what you are doing, and then we will release the funds.’ Mrs Gill’s budget is full of reserves which we intend to use as a means to persuade the administration to take action and ensure that at least some progress is made. In this respect, this budget is indeed an instrument for this House to signal its political goals. We in the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats adopted the same approach to the Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), when at the height of the debate – namely when the Centre refused for more than two weeks to publish a study on anti-Semitism which was then published by our fellow Member Mr Cohn-Bendit and others – we asked: ‘Why on earth are you getting EUR 6 million per year if you are not going to publish your reports?’ We were told: ‘You cannot suspend its funding.’ That was precisely what we did, although Mr Walter did not notice. When he finally woke up, he issued press releases that said: ‘Mr Laschet has no expertise whatsoever. The Committee on Budgets cannot do this.’ Mr Walter, I would have expected you to table a motion here today to retrieve the funds from the reserve. After all, the plenary could have made that happen. Just because you sleep through decisions that we take in the Committee on Budgets, it is unfair of you to go to the press and issue this kind of press release. I will give you a shout at around 5 p.m. today, shall I? ‘Good morning, Mr Walter, the items have been put on ice, and the Committee on Budgets will only release them when the confusion between politics and academia at the EUMC has been resolved’. You might like to mull over this simple piece of advice, Mr Walter, before you make such ridiculous statements again."@en1

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