Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-07-Speech-2-174"
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"en.20050607.25.2-174"2
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".
Mr President, first of all, may I, in turn, thank Reimer Böge and the whole team who, under your chairmanship, have worked hard to ensure that Parliament has a position worthy of its status as a branch of the budgetary authority.
In this capacity, we sought to formulate proposals designed to bring about economic recovery and intensify European solidarity while preserving the essential building blocks that are already part of the European edifice. Conscious of the difficulties experienced by some Member States, we had to produce a transitional Financial Perspective. Our negotiations culminated in a very reasonable draft which still contains crucial growth elements. Our duty, in fact, is to maximise the value added to national budgets by European intervention and to give Europe the means it requires to implement a project designed to bring progress in which all Member States can share.
We must remember that, in the long run, expenditure at European level is a source of savings for national governments, particularly because European expenditure permits economies of scale and often enables Member States to make innovations and pursue policies that they could not have done independently. With a budget corresponding to 1.07% of GDP in payment appropriations, we shall have the resources to ensure that policies can be implemented in future. There has also been a need to break certain taboos. I am thinking here of the funding of the common agricultural policy, which will have to be reviewed if necessary in order to establish a fairer expenditure structure. I am also thinking of the British rebate, which must be challenged if we are to have a fairer own resources mechanism. I am thinking of the Cohesion Fund too, where we must create a transitional mechanism to avoid penalising those Member States that would no longer be eligible for support. In addition, all the institutions are called upon to intensify their efforts to achieve economy and efficiency.
My last point on the payment appropriations is that the two elements of the present proposal are inseparable, namely the 1.7% in payment appropriations and the 24.2 billion for the flexibility instruments that are imperative if we are to develop the policies essential to growth and solidarity in the Union and the world.
I should also like to emphasise two aspects of the present situation. The first concerns our disappointment at having been unable to finance Natura 2000 entirely outside the budget for rural development, to which we attached such great importance. The second concerns the demand we Socialists made for the
allocation of resources to the European Development Fund, which is an indispensable instrument for the improvement of decentralised cooperation.
Finally, I should like to conclude by saying that Europe is experiencing difficulties at the present time, which I shall not spell out in detail. It has emerged clearly from these recent events that our citizens want a real Europe, a Europe that relates to them and communicates with them. This is precisely why it is very important to avail ourselves of this new heading. We are undoubtedly struggling today to find a political programme for Europe. We have objectives but not enough major projects and too few resources. It is essential to respond to people’s expectations, and I address these words directly to the Council. It is high time the Council was able to fulfil the hopes of the European peoples. There is an urgent need for it to face up to its responsibilities. We all need this budgetary framework in order to breathe fresh life into the economy and to regain public trust. We must overcome national self-interest and rediscover a mature approach to the European political project. There is nothing excessive about our demand, and that is why we are asking the Council to advance towards our position."@en1
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