Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-14-Speech-2-103"
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"en.20040914.8.2-103"2
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"Mr President, the European Union’s draft budget for 2005 is the first one applying to a Union of 25 Member States for a complete year. We might say that the enlarged EU is starting to work to an established routine. The budget is also the first of this Parliament and the newly appointed Commission, and so it reflects the essence of an entirely new EU.
The total payment appropriations in the budget come to EUR 105 billion; that is, 0.99% of GNP, or approximately EUR 9 billion below the financial perspective ceiling. The proposal is therefore very stringent. This has been achieved by cutting agricultural expenditure by EUR 1 billion and structural financing by EUR 3 billion, which should be regarded as questionable.
The budget has now once again been drafted on an activity-based structure, increasing its transparency. At the same time, it clarifies personal accountability for administration and facilitates comparison of the efficiency of different administrative branches. This is a first-rate, liberalising improvement and it shows that the EU too is capable of major reforms.
Outstanding commitments remain the biggest problem with the EU budget. These will rise to EUR 112 billion by the end of this year. Most of it has to do with the Structural Funds. For example, last year EUR 8 134 000 000 in budgeted payment appropriations in the Structural Funds went unused. The result of this will be that, over the coming years, an ever larger proportion of the Structural Funds will be used to meet old commitments. Finally, I would like to say that this draft budget drawn up by the Council will require some substantial revision by Parliament."@en1
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