Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-088"
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"en.20040914.8.2-088"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour for me, on behalf of the Council, to be able to present to you the draft Budget as we have decided it for 2005 in the Council in July.
As for payment appropriations, that is to say, the cash that the European Union will be required to pay out during 2005, a total of EUR 105 billion has been set aside for this purpose. That represents an increase of 5.4% compared to the appropriations for the current year, and corresponds to 0.99% of the Union’s gross national income.
With regard to Heading 1, agriculture, I should like to comment as follows. In previous years, the estimates were often too high. The Council has therefore decided to reduce by a total of EUR 1 billion the amounts proposed by the Commission in its preliminary draft budget for common agricultural policy. We have done this by a general reduction of all items on the preliminary draft budget amounting to more than EUR 800 million. However, the Council has taken account of the fact that the ultimate level of appropriations will be determined in the autumn, when the Commission presents its letter of amendment as agreed in the Interinstitutional Agreement.
Concerning Heading 2, the structural measures, the Council has adopted the commitment appropriations proposed in the Commission’s preliminary draft budget for this heading. Nevertheless, and in the light of the substantial under-use of the resources for structural measures, the Council has decided to lower the level of payment appropriations. Accordingly, the payment appropriations proposed by the Commission in its preliminary draft budget have, by means of a general reduction, been cut by EUR 3 billion. The resulting appropriation corresponds to the expected implementation level. This reduction also impacts on Community initiatives and the completion of programmes dating from before 2000. In this connection, however, I should like to emphasise that the payment appropriations which the Council determined in its draft budget, even after this discount, are still significantly higher than the implementation level in the previous years.
As for Heading 3, internal policy, the Council has decided to adopt the amounts in the draft budget that were proposed in line with the codecision procedure for multi-annual programmes, as agreed following enlargement. This also applies to specific amounts related to the Copenhagen conclusions.
The Council, however, has restricted the appropriations for a few budget lines that are not based on multi-annual programmes. This applies to press and communication and to the preparatory measures in the area of security research. The Council takes the view that the amounts that the Commission had allocated to a few specific agencies were in excess of what can be regarded as realistic in view of their recent inception.
As a result of the choices within Heading 3 to which I have just referred, the Council provides for a margin of EUR 108 million under the ceiling for Heading 3 of the financial perspectives. On the basis of this margin, the European Parliament will also need to be able to set its own priorities for internal policy.
In respect of Heading 4, external actions, the Council has deviated from the approach for which the Commission had opted in its preliminary draft budget. The Council was of the opinion that more detailed choices needed to be made in the list of priorities, so as not to exceed the ceiling of Heading 4 of the financial perspectives. Indeed, the deployment of the flexibility instrument is not at issue.
The Council has, however, adopted the amounts proposed by the Commission for reconstruction in Iraq. Bearing in mind the resources required for the common foreign and security policy, the Council has maintained the level that was determined for this in the final budget for 2004.
In order to fund these priorities under the existing ceiling of Heading 4 of the financial perspectives, however, the Council has applied a small, proportionate reduction to the amounts proposed by the Commission for the principal budget lines; the appropriations for international fisheries agreements have been given proportionate consideration. As such, the amounts have been reduced to the level of the financial resources for the current year, with a small margin in Heading 4 for unforeseen circumstances.
I hope and expect that, at the second reading of the Budget for 2005, we can reach agreement as provided for in the Interinstitutional Agreement, with regard to the final budget for the CFSP and international fisheries agreements. As for the presidency’s efforts in the area of information on foreign policy, I should like to report what has been agreed with Parliament. As you know, on 21 September, the next meeting will take place within the framework of the special agreement we reached in this respect with your House under the Italian Presidency. We will try to inform you in good time of the developments during that meeting. I would also refer to the speech which Mr Bot, the Foreign Affairs Minister, recently delivered to your Committee on Foreign Affairs.
As European Affairs Minister, I will be making regular visits in the next few months, and that is why I should like to take this opportunity of congratulating you once again, partly officially, on your election as Members of the European Parliament. In particular, I should like to mention the chairmen of the two committees, the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control.
The situation with regard to Heading 5, administrative expenditure, is rather complicated. The institutions’ collective estimates have led to the ceiling being exceeded. I would, however, remind you that our institutions had already decided beforehand against the deployment of the flexibility instrument for administrative expenditure for 2005. A controlled development of administrative expenditure goes hand in hand with healthy financial management. I am convinced that you as Members of this House, the other wing of the budgetary authority, share the Council’s view of healthy financial management.
The Council has therefore decided that a margin of around EUR 50 million will be sufficient, taking into consideration the cutbacks that have been made further to the development of information technologies and interinstitutional cooperation, as well as specific recruitment programmes for personnel.
Finally, I come to Heading 7, the pre-accession strategy, for which the Council has adopted the commitment appropriations proposed by the Commission. Given the expected implementation level of these measures, however, the Council has slightly reduced the payment appropriations as proposed by the Commission, and has brought them into line with real needs.
Madam President, I should like to thank your Parliament for its attention thus far, and to wish you every success with the debates on this draft Budget. I hope and trust that we will be able to present, on time, a balanced Budget for 2005. I hope that this can be done on the basis of the proposals as they are now before us. I assume that they are a sound basis. I know we do not see eye to eye on every issue, and that is why we are looking forward to the debate. I am convinced that, as in the past, we will reach a mutually agreeable resolution in the end.
As the two branches of the budgetary authority, you in the European Parliament and we in the Council, we have enjoyed excellent cooperation in the past few years, and I am convinced that we can continue in the same fashion. In my view, the conciliation meeting we had in July last sets the right tone for this. During that conciliation meeting, we came to a number of sound agreements, and I should like to mention one here, namely the provision of information on the part of the Council to you in the European Parliament in the light of the forthcoming financial perspectives. I think that that is a good starting point for our, that is the EU presidency’s communications and dealings with you, the European Parliament, including where the financial perspectives are concerned.
I should like to make a few general observations about this Budget’s guiding principles and follow this up by making a few specific explanatory comments about the different headings.
The Council has, of course, in deciding on the draft budget, taken into consideration the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 with which you are familiar. This Agreement pertains to
the importance of ceilings and compliance with them, and of discussion on adequate margins, on unforeseen circumstances and flexibility.
The Council has emphasised that sufficient payment appropriations must become available without losing touch with reality in the process. We must avoid overestimating the level of payment appropriations. The excessive surpluses that have materialised over the past few years do not reflect the best financial management. Moreover, I am certain that you in the European Parliament will also agree that, as all Member States and all national parliaments have to observe strict discipline, we should do the same at European level.
As you have been able to see, we in the Council have listed with great care our priorities and posteriorities in the different headings of the financial perspectives. One priority I should like to highlight is the importance of providing the new Member States with sufficient leeway, in line with the agreements we have made in this respect previously, including in Copenhagen.
Finally, in the bracket of general explanatory comments, I should like to mention the importance of what we call activity statements. I think that that is a good new way that improves quality and the provision of information, and that is an improvement on the way in which we deal with the Budget. Consequently, the Commission has been asked to continue the efforts in this area.
I should like to run through the different categories, starting with the general remark that, as you know, the draft Budget provides for an amount of EUR 116 billion for commitments, which is 4.1% more than in the 2004 Budget."@en1
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