Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-06-Speech-2-186"
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"en.20050906.31.2-186"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for the opportunity offered to me today to express my opinion concerning the first proposal by the Council, especially since as early as last June following the first reading we had a chance to exchange our views with Parliament and the Council, as well as with the representatives of political groups of the European Parliament. I would like to share the idea held by most speakers that the 2006 budget is a special one, as it is the last of the current Financial Perspective drawn up by the Commission seeking to most comprehensively and realistically take into consideration the most pressing needs of the European Union, to complete all the important projects and to prepare well for the new financial period. Therefore, in response to the proposal of the Council, I would like to immediately define three areas that in the Commission’s opinion are the most challenging.
Having first outlined the importance of the European budget for 2006, I should like to focus on three main areas in which the Commission thinks that the major concerns need to be addressed and resolved by all three institutions, including the budgetary authorities in particular.
Our main concerns relate to Heading 3, where we think that the reductions proposed by the Council are not justified and cannot be supported by the Commission, mainly because the requirements and the amounts proposed by the Commission were based on projects already committed and ongoing. We think that such reductions will create many problems for the payment of bills for ongoing projects in the Community in 2006 for the Member States.
Furthermore, half of the proposed reductions in payment appropriations are concentrated on activities which represent only about 10% of the total budget. Surprisingly, no justification is given for concentrating the reductions in this way.
In Heading 4 the reductions proposed by the Council will create at least three serious problems. First of all, the reduction goes against the decisions taken by the General Affairs Council itself, especially regarding post-tsunami reconstruction in Asia and the renewed commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. Second, in relation to recent developments in the world, we expect, and have already had indications, that Europe will be asked to assist in the disengagement process from Gaza. The third problem concerns the negotiations on the fisheries agreement with Morocco. All these three elements make it more difficult to accept or look favourably upon the Council's proposal.
The question of Heading 5 was raised and discussed at length at the 15 July meeting between the three institutions. As promised, on Friday I sent to both budgetary authorities additional information on the progress of recruitment from EU-10 and EU-15. By 31 July this year, 90% of the recruitment targets from new Member States had been fulfilled. We believe that the proposed reductions forwarded by the Council are the result of a misunderstanding between us and may well derive from a technical error.
We very much expect that, before second reading, we will be able to engage in consultations with the Council in particular in an effort to resolve this issue. The proposal on the table today means that for 2006 not only will we be unable to recruit from EU-10, but we will be stopping all recruitment in the Commission, as well as lacking the resources to pay salaries for existing staff levels.
Taking all this into account and in reply to Mrs Pittella's request that the Commission take as forceful an approach as possible to this proposal, let me say that we are committed to resolving all possible questions in cooperation with the budgetary authorities. I call on all sides to show goodwill in this endeavour, as it will be greatly needed if we are to finalise the deal for this year."@en1
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