Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-074"
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"en.20040914.7.2-074"2
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"Mr President, Madam Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, as Chairman of the Conference of Presidents, I would like to start by expressing sincere thanks to Mrs de Palacio for her excellent cooperation and for her constant availability throughout her term of office. Over the past few years, we have covered a lot of mileage together, and have made a success of it. Let us recall that, at the beginning of the last Parliament, there was no structured dialogue between our two institutions as regards the preparation of the Commission’s legislative and working programme. Today, and to a large degree thanks to your efforts, we have a real dialogue between the institutions, which has made it possible for the Commission’s legislative programme, from now on, to better reflect Parliament’s priorities, so the results of this ongoing dialogue are thoroughly encouraging. I would like, however, against the background of our experiences over the last few years – and this is what I understand by stocktaking
to offer some lines of thought on the main areas of concern for the future.
First and foremost, it strikes me that interinstitutional dialogue should focus even more on the main legislative priorities, some current examples of which you have already mentioned, such as future Financial Perspectives or the proposals for REACH. We must aim to identify, as early as possible, the most urgent proposals, in order to be able to better organise our work when the time comes. The package of proposals on future Financial Perspectives is an excellent example. This week, this House will be taking the decision to set up a temporary committee within which work on these proposals will be coordinated.
Defining priorities also involves identifying what is no longer relevant to present-day concerns. With this in mind, I welcome the Commission’s recent decision to withdraw a whole series of proposals. Having said that, despite this cleaning-up operation, a number of proposals remain on the table with little hope of being brought to fruition. Let me take this opportunity to ask my fellow Members to closely scrutinise the list of work in progress and then ask the new Commission to withdraw or replace any supplementary dossier that is no longer relevant.
The second major area that concerns me has to do with improving the way in which the legislative programme relates to what is provided in the Budget, and this is where it strikes me as opportune that we should think about better coordination within this House between the debates on the Budget and those on policy priorities.
To talk in practical terms, one might in future organise a large-scale budget debate in the presence of the whole Commission, thereby making the debate as specific as possible and making it possible to set out the actual directions in which the legislative programme should go. Such a debate should be held at a point when the legislative programme has reached an advanced stage, and the November part-session strikes me – for the present – as the ideal time for this.
Such considerations prompt me to make a third, and essential, point concerning the schedule for presenting the legislative programme. I see it as imperative that everything possible be done to ensure that this should be available, in good time, to all the actors involved, including the national parliaments, European consultative bodies, and, ultimately, the public themselves.
Finally, it is essential that we build up still further coordination between our work and that of the Council. We have the tools we need to do this, by which I mean the Council’s multinational programme and the annual programme as prepared by two successive presidencies. Recently, too, I would also add, we have concluded an interinstitutional agreement laying the foundations for ‘better law-making’ in the European Union. At present, our role is to implement these new instruments for the benefit of the public, and I wonder whether this might not be the right time for our institution to take a look at whether those priorities that take the form of a legislative programme have a future.
Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, we have made enormous progress over the past few years in identifying shared priorities and in planning our legislative work together. There are three things that I see as being important if we are to gain our fellow-citizens’ confidence in our shared project. In future, we will need to communicate the major priorities and issues of our legislative activity. We will have to strengthen participatory democracy, and for that to happen it will be essential that all the interested parties be allowed as much time as they want to identify the priorities for the year ahead. Last of all, we will have to demonstrate the efficiency of our institutions, both in terms of their internal functioning and of their relations with one another.
I trust that these thoughts will help us to achieve our goals."@en1
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