Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-093"
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"en.20040914.8.2-093"2
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"Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I find myself today in a very curious position, as after five years I am forced to agree with the Commissioner on nearly all counts. I am pleased that at the end of your term of office we have reached this stage of cooperation, and I believe this also says something positive about our cooperation during the past five years. We will, however, have a suitable opportunity to pay tribute to this in October.
Today I would particularly like to address the President-in-Office of the Council, as the draft Budget submitted by the Council raises a number of questions to which serious answers must be given by both arms of the budgetary authority, and not, as I would like to make perfectly clear, by Parliament alone. The problems demand a joint solution, and the Council cannot evade its responsibility. Matters relating to agricultural policy have been touched upon, and the agricultural reform we have drawn up will be implemented as of 1 January 2005. This gives rise to corresponding obligations, and we need to fulfil the terms of the Treaty concluded with the new Member States in Copenhagen. It is no longer possible to act as though agricultural policy were a piggy bank under the sole control of the Council. All legal obligations which have been entered into must be fulfilled. As you well know, responsibility for this is yours and yours alone, and I would ask you to shoulder it.
The same is true for structural policy. It is of course a fine thing for us to be discussing a new Financial Perspective now, when requests are being sent in by all the Member States for all these things to be funded. With specific regard to budget implementation, however, which the Commissioner is right to say has now improved, cuts to payments, meaning a current reduction in real terms, are not a policy that we can support. You should therefore also shoulder your responsibility in this respect, and not merely look at the figures, but also at whether the policies are correct, which, in the field of structural policy, they are.
Mr President-in-Office of the Council, you said that you have supported all agreements relating to the multiannual programmes and made no cuts to any of them. We will examine this very carefully, as we have our doubts with regard to certain matters, and you can be sure that we will take a very close look at these issues. It is particularly necessary to give new impetus to the agreements relating to enlargement negotiated by our rapporteur, Mr Böge, and I believe that it is also in our own interests that funding be provided for programmes for which we have legislated, such as youth exchanges and education, without going into too many details.
I would now like to turn to the subject of the agencies, and to ask whether you are shouldering your responsibility in this respect. It is my opinion that the Heads of State or Government played Santa Claus with each other and spread a large number of agencies throughout the continent, and now they must all be funded. I would ask you to take a moment to consider whether it is practical in the long term for all this to be done under heading 3. Wherever it is created, administration should be funded under the heading of administration. It is not sufficient for the Heads of State or Government to brag about the fantastic agencies they have obtained for their Member States; they must also ensure that appropriate funding is available so that we can do justice to this duty.
I only wish to say a few words on the issue of information policy; here, too, we will have serious things to say to the Commission, as it has refused to make the outcome of the Convention known to the general public. We must cooperate a little more closely on this issue if we genuinely wish to overcome the deficiencies which became obvious during the European elections.
As far as foreign policy is concerned, I am starting to wonder what is going on. Since 1999, or the 2000 budget, we have been faced with the problem that we cannot fund the commitments which the foreign ministers enter into in their never-ending donation frenzy. Once again – and I have lost count of the number of times it has done so already – the Commission is putting forward proposals relating to use of the flexibility instrument under heading 4, foreign policy. Your foreign minister policy is currently running on empty, and I would like to make it perfectly clear that this cannot be tolerated. We will be sure to keep an eye on this. I could also say something on the subject of Cyprus, but I will refrain from doing so, as I am running out of time and the President is already giving me a stern look.
With regard to administrative expenditure, I will merely say that you cannot make cuts everywhere else and increase your own budget. That is unfair and shows a lack of solidarity, and we will not tolerate this either. I would like to express my thanks to the rapporteur and to everyone else; much remains to be done, and we must save money, but we must save in the right places so that Europe remains visible."@en1
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