Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-14-Speech-2-204"
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"en.20041214.13.2-204"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the debate on the Union’s Financial Perspective ought to be a debate on the future of Europe. The decade 2004-2013 will be characterised by the accession of 12 new countries. The Union needs to decide whether it is going to promote the unification of Europe and equality of opportunity, or whether it is to create divisions and heighten inequalities. Research establishments
civic society, entrepreneurs and others ought to contribute to the debate on the future of Europe, not just politicians. Unfortunately, the Union is not in favour of a public debate of this kind. Instead, the future of Europe is being decided in remote offices. Bureaucrats and politicians are taking the decisions on tasks and resources, and they also decide how to allocate funds and on the amounts involved. In the meantime, Parliament is busy debating minor issues together with the possibility of broadening its competences. Even if Parliament’s competences were to be increased, there will be no time to prepare our own draft budget tackling two major issues, namely how to speed up the pace of economic development and how to reduce the differences between richer and poorer regions of Europe.
A new budget is required, however, as the Commission’s draft runs counter to the notion of solidarity and is not conducive to speeding up the development of Europe. This is true both of the proposals and the sums referred to therein. The best example I could mention is the fact that the countries of the old Fifteen, which are all rich, are to receive in excess of EUR 194 billion from the Cohesion Fund, whilst the ten new Member States and Romania and Bulgaria are only due to receive EUR 180 billion. It is also worth remembering that a significant proportion of the second sum will end up in the richer countries, in the form of order and of payments to advisers and experts.
In our view, the European Parliament ought to come up with its own draft budget. This should either be undertaken in opposition to the Commission and the Council, or in cooperation with them. This budget would be based on three principles. The first of these is that the greater the Union, the greater the budget. The second is that the greater the differences in development, the more funding should go to less-developed regions and Member States. The third principle is that tax and investment concessions are required, as are other appropriate measures for the benefit of less-developed regions and countries."@en1
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