Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-13-Speech-2-019"
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"en.20051213.6.2-019"2
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".
Mr President, it is an honour and a privilege to be back in this Chamber to represent the Presidency of the Council in this important debate on the budget of the European Communities for 2006.
As I said earlier, I believe that this compromise agreement represents a fair and balanced outcome for all three institutions – Council, Parliament and Commission. There are no doubt elements of it that each of us might like to improve, but that is the essence of compromise. No one is entirely satisfied, each of us has made a sacrifice and modified our positions. Both the Council and Parliament had tough mandates this year and it was no easy matter to find common ground. Consequently, I commend this solution to you and look forward to your vote.
I should now like to touch very briefly on other aspects of the Council’s second reading, which honourable Members might like to take into account. In heading 1: Agriculture, the Council reinstated the EUR 150 million reduction from the first reading and accepted instead the Commission’s Amending Letter 2, which reduces expenditure on subheading 1a by EUR 361 million compared to the preliminary draft budget.
In heading 2: Structural Operations, the Council reinstated its first reading position for a reduction of EUR 150 million for payments compared to the PDB. This reflects the Council’s view of the expected implementation rate and is based on past evidence of implementation shortfalls, including amending budget 8 for 2005.
In heading 3: Internal Policies, the Council largely reinstated its first reading position but made some modest changes to a few key budget lines, including an increase in the payments for research lines, reflecting the increased emphasis on Lisbon from Hampton Court and entrusting the Commission to improve the implementation record in this area. This allows a 16% increase to research payments, compared to 2005.
In heading 4: External Actions, the Council reinstated its first reading and also accepted the Commission’s Amending Letter 1 concerning traditional assistance for sugar protocol countries, allocating resources from its first reading margin.
In heading 5: Administrative Expenditure, the Council partly accepted Parliament’s first reading amendment to the Commission budget in light of new evidence about vacancy rates. It also accepted the proposal to reduce EUR 20 million from Parliament’s budget. Otherwise it reinstated its first reading position, recalling the need for savings in operating costs from interinstitutional cooperation and economies of scale.
Finally, in heading 7: Pre-accession Strategy, the Council reinstated its first reading position.
Of course, Parliament will need to make changes to the Council’s second reading position to implement our agreement on payments, codecided amounts and mobilisation of the flexibility instrument. I very much hope that Parliament will take account of the Council’s position, especially concerning commitments in headings 3 and 5, where there are clear opportunities to make savings and ensure there is a margin for the unexpected during 2006.
In conclusion, the agreement we reached on 30 November provides adequate funding for the European Union’s various priorities. It broadly respects the important principles of budgetary discipline and sound financial management, of which the Council and Parliament are joint guardians. It deserves the confidence of the citizens of the European Union and will contribute to rebuilding public confidence in the Union and its institutions.
I hope honourable Members will forgive me if I do not remain in the Chamber for the duration of this morning’s debate, as I need to return urgently to London. However, I will be staying to hear as many speeches as possible, which I am sure will be of the usual thoughtful and constructive nature. I intend to return to Strasbourg on Thursday for the vote and the adoption of the 2006 EC budget.
The European Parliament’s second reading of the annual budget, culminating in the vote on Thursday, is a key part of the European Union calendar and is probably more important this year than ever before. The agreement between the Council and the parliamentary delegation on the main elements of the 2006 budget was reached in the end in the best spirit of cooperation and compromise. By putting that agreement into effect in the adopted budget, the European Parliament has the opportunity to send a clear signal to the people of Europe that, despite the challenges we face over the Constitution and future financing, the European Union is still operating effectively and in their best interest.
Mr President, honourable Members, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I wish to say that it has been a privilege and a pleasure to work through this process – although not on every occasion – and we can be rightly proud of the agreement that we are seeking to conclude during the course of this week.
I do not need to remind honourable Members of the historical importance of this budgetary procedure. They will be acutely aware that the last procedure under the current financial perspective has a special role in bridging past priorities and future objectives to provide a measure of continuity and the basis for coherence between two financial perspectives.
I believe the agreement we reached in Brussels two weeks ago broadly satisfies those objectives. But it does something more than that. The difficulty of reconciling our policy priorities with the core principles of budget discipline and sound financial management highlights the fact that the current budget structures are stretched to breaking point. The next financial perspective must offer the prospect of real reform and renewal in the future if the EC budget is to remain relevant and genuinely meet the needs and expectations of European citizens in the 21st century. It will not be easy, but if the two arms of the budgetary authority – the Parliament and the Council, which I represent today – can build on the spirit of cooperation we found in the end to deliver a 2006 budget, we have a chance to create a shared vision in the next few days for a better future in 2007-2013 and beyond.
Returning to 2006, honourable Members will be aware that the budget agreement between the Council and the parliamentary delegation focused primarily on three key elements. Each required some compromise from both sides, in some cases, frankly, going into uncharted budget waters, which perhaps explains why it was necessary to take a little longer over negotiations than has been the case traditionally. I stress that in each case, the parliamentary delegation drove a hard bargain and, as a consequence, several members of the Council felt unable to support our final compromise. But I believe that we reached a fair and balanced outcome in the end, one which I was able to steer through Council by a qualified majority.
Firstly, we agreed to amend upward the financial envelopes for six codecided programmes in heading 3: Internal Policies. The Council did not see the need to propose these increases in its draft budget; however, the parliamentary delegation argued strongly that the six programmes concerned would be severely constrained without additional resources. In the spirit of compromise and consistent with the Interinstitutional Agreement, I was able to persuade the Council to accept these changes. This is the first time that has been agreed in the current financial perspective. It is perhaps fitting that it happened in the final year of that perspective, and I am sure that both arms of the budgetary authority would want to consider it as an exceptional event.
Secondly, we agreed to mobilise the flexibility instrument for programmes in heading 4: External Actions, for a total of EUR 275 million. The Council took the initial view that it ought to be possible, with some reprioritisation, to finance all external actions within the budget ceiling. However, I stress that the Council remains firmly committed to meet the urgent needs of external partners consistent with promises made and commitments undertaken. Member States recognise the tight budgetary constraints in heading 4, demonstrated no more clearly than the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the Council was ultimately persuaded of the need to mobilise the flexibility instrument to ease these constraints.
I believe the outcome, which exceeds the Commission’s proposals by more than EUR 110 million, represents a fair compromise, ensuring resources for key urgent priorities, such as Iraq, tsunami reconstruction, traditional assistance for sugar protocol countries, and CFSP. It also recognises that further demands on the external actions budget are likely during 2006. However, I stress that this is the first time it has been necessary to exceed EUR 200 million in a single year. The Council considers this an exceptional event and some Member States remain convinced that it is an unnecessary step. I hope that honourable Members will appreciate the significance of this outcome and share with me the hope that more effective use of the principle of reprioritisation and reallocation will prevail in similar circumstances in future years.
Finally, as required by the Treaty, the Council and the parliamentary delegation agreed to set the level of overall payments for 2006 at EUR 111 969 million. This represents the Commission’s original proposal which, after taking account of Amending Letters 1, 2 and 3, is more than half a billion euros above the Council’s original position. I recognise that this figure is somewhat lower than some Members of Parliament would have liked. However, it is firmly based on the Commission’s estimates of what it is able effectively to spend. I am sure honourable Members will share my concern not to create an unnecessary budget surplus and so would recognise the case for prudence. Of course the budgetary authority stands ready to consider an amending budget to amend the level of payments, should that prove necessary during 2006."@en1
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