Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-13-Speech-2-047"
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"en.20051213.6.2-047"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, there are just a few comments I would like to make at this point. I have been through quite a few budget debates, but none have been conducted in such a shameful manner as this year’s even though I did think that previous performances could not be surpassed.
When I consider the way the 2006 budget procedure went, and how the preparations for the next financial framework are progressing, I really do wonder, Mr President-in-Office, why your Prime Minister – to whom I ask you to pass this on – delivered such an incandescent speech in Brussels at the end of June. The words were fine, but action has not been forthcoming. It is not that it has been moderate, but rather that there simply has not been any. I am glad that the British Presidency of the Council has learned, in the course of this budget procedure, that this House knows what it is for and what it is about. I hope you will take that insight away with you and take account of it in your deliberations. You have an image of Europe as somewhere where a few Heads of State or Government announce how things are to go and steer them in that direction, and in which the Commission and Parliament are no more than decorative accessories that have to be tolerated; well, I have to tell you that that Europe no longer exists. If you have taken this lesson to heart, then I will be very satisfied with the British Presidency of the Council.
I will, however – and here I am addressing the Commissioner – make the critical comment that, as regards the role played by the Commission in the budget procedure, there has to be something of a rethink. It is not acceptable that the European Parliament should act as the Commission’s shield and defence, yet keep on getting the sense of being left in the lurch when the Commission withdraws positions in response to pressure from the Council. That is another thing to which we will, together, need to give very close consideration if we are to achieve anything together. Getting additional funds made available could have been achieved with less of an effort, but the fact is that presidencies sometimes need a bit longer to understand things and to come round to supporting them. This House, though, is patient and takes its time, for we do have a few things in the field of education policy that we want to hammer out with the Council.
To you, Mr President-in-Office, I want to press home the point that the Inter-Institutional Agreement has proved its worth. We have agreed among ourselves on the ground rules, we have insisted on you keeping to them, and that was the right way to go about it.
I do, though, also want to say something self-critical about something that has bothered me for years, and since I myself once had the honour to present Parliament’s budget, and it is this: this House will, in the long term, have no credibility in negotiations with the Council or the Commission if we do not get a firm grip on our own budget. When I consider the unspent funds from the 2005 budget that we had to deal with yesterday when again transferring appropriations, or the struggle we had with our good friends the Social Democrats in order to get Parliament’s budget just EUR 20 million below the magic 20% limit – and I am obliged to the rapporteur, Mr Dombrovskis, for leading us in it – then we will have to give serious thought to what all this has to do with truth and clarity. A European Parliament that fails to manage 10% of the amount budgeted for in the manner prescribed, has a credibility problem, and it is one that we have to consider in a self-critical light.
I would just like to say something else about the financial perspective. I urge you to take home with you the lesson, which you have learned, that Europe consists of states with equal rights, not of old and new Member States. Europe adds up to a common interest, not to the sum of 25 national interests. If you bear that in mind, you will have a successful weekend; if you do not, it will be a flop."@en1
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