Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-17-Speech-3-358"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060517.23.3-358"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
It has been said that if you cannot change matters on the basis of principle, then at least take a principled attitude towards them. It appears that many principled approaches were taken in the approval process for the 2007 budget proposal.
On 3 May the European Commission adopted a provisional Budget for 2007. In doing so it took the first step towards establishing a budget for the first year of a seven-year period, but I hope that it will not be as painful each time over the years 2007 to 2013. If the Commissioner regards the proposed budget as a minimalist budget, I will have to agree with her. On the other hand, it is hard to see that this budget will make a fundamental contribution to supporting European competitiveness. It is rather a conventional budget.
It is true, however, that the compromise we have achieved on the budgetary ceiling for the 2007-2013 financial framework will not leave the Commission much room for manoeuvre. This can be seen by the data on the overall increase in payments compared with 2006. The overall 3.9% growth in payments actually seems quite moderate. If we take into account anticipated inflation of 2% in 2007, this leaves a mere 1.9% more in the real funding for the needs of European policy in that year. And this at a time when 30 million Bulgarians and Romanians will be joining the European Union in January 2007.
There have been changes in the structure of the budget that I regard as positive. Expenditure on natural resources and agriculture will only increase by 1.2%, while funds earmarked for competitiveness and the cohesion policy for growth and employment will grow by more than 12%. However, the effective use of this funding will be a key issue.
Knowledge transfer within the economy should be supported with further cash earmarked for programmes on competitiveness and innovation, the development of trans-European networks and lifelong learning. A new element is the globalisation fund of EUR 500 million to help workers made redundant as a result of industrial restructuring. However, the effective use of this funding will again be an issue.
We can continue to debate questions to do with adding a little bit here and taking away a little bit there. With its proposal the Commission has set a fairly strict, but not unrealistic level. It will be difficult for the European Council to lower this budgetary hurdle, and for the European Parliament to raise it. The budgetary compromise for 2007 should therefore remain very close to these levels."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"Sergej Kozlík (NI )"1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples