Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-31-Speech-3-284"
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"en.20040331.13.3-284"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have been a Member of this House for fifteen years, and for fifteen years, my group has been demanding the budgetisation of the EDF. It is an untenable situation that a fund with an overall budget of this level is not subject to any democratic parliamentary control. I believe it is essential to establish this control. Mr Scarbonchi's report identifies an adequate range of options to safeguard this control without inflicting any damage on the ACP countries, because special consideration must undoubtedly be given to ensuring that no ACP country is put at a disadvantage.
Until now, the Council has been engaged in a kind of poker game over this issue, which is why the entry into force of the 9th EDF was delayed until 2003. It is absolutely essential that Parliament, in partnership and cooperation with the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, should be able to exert its influence. Implementing the objectives defined in the Cotonou Agreement must naturally be given priority, but the European Parliament can exercise accountability towards the public as well, which has not happened before.
Let me sum up some of the demands set out in the report and which are indispensable: firstly, to safeguard the principles of partnership with the ACP countries, which I think is a given; secondly, to establish legal certainty and predictability, especially for the poorest of the poor, by which is meant the least developed countries, who – with some justification – are concerned that they may go away empty-handed.
The task is to facilitate medium-term financial planning and not cling to the principle of annuality, which would make longer-term development cooperation impossible. Above all, of course, as various speakers have said, levels of development funding for ACP countries must be guaranteed. Even more important, however, is to prevent these funds being siphoned off to meet needs elsewhere. Instead, the resources must genuinely be committed to, and available to, the ACP countries and their use must be agreed with them on the basis of partnership. Provided that these criteria are met, I believe we will also clear up any preconceptions and reservations. To this end, we are hoping for support not only from the Commission but also, and above all, from the Council."@en1
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