Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-26-Speech-2-147"
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"en.20041026.12.2-147"2
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"Mr President, I too wish to thank Mr Garriga Polledo for his extremely competent work on the budget in a difficult situation. I also wish to express my satisfaction at the fact that, during the last five years, the Commission has appreciably improved reporting on activities in the development area, which is the area with which we work in the committee that I am representing in the House today. A lot remains to be done, especially on developing measurements of results, but progress has undoubtedly been made.
There is considerable agreement in the committee I represent as to the need for the EU, in its external activities, to give maximum attention to the issues of poverty and the millennium objectives. If this is to be possible, a larger proportion of the budget must, however, give priority to efforts in countries with low incomes. At present, only slightly more than 40% of the money ends up in those countries.
We have therefore proposed changes to the distribution and, of course, also additions to the Council’s proposals, both to strengthen efforts to combat HIV, malaria and TB, and specifically to allocate more aid to Asia, the region in which far and away the largest number of poor people live. We also propose a new budget item totalling EUR 10 million to enable us to be proactive in efficiently tackling diseases other than HIV, malaria and TB that claim many millions of lives each year, especially among children.
These proposals can only be put into practice if use can be made of the flexibility mechanism. We have no objections whatsoever to contributing to the reconstruction in Iraq. On the contrary. We cannot, however, accept its impairing our long-term efforts to combat poverty.
Since the Committee on Budgets’ proposals were presented, I have, finally, tabled three amendments at the request of the Committee on Development. They do not involve more money, but are about moving a number of budget items from Title 19 of the budget, External Relations, to Title 21, Development Cooperation. We do not understand why efforts to combat poverty in Asia and Latin America should be given a different heading and position in the budget than corresponding efforts in Africa. The budget should reflect political objectives and not the Commission’s organisational structure. I hope our demands are supported, not only at first, but also at second, reading."@en1
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