Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-28-Speech-3-189"
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"en.20070328.17.3-189"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the own-initiative report that we are debating today relates to an area that is crucially important for the future of the Union – that of its resources. When we talk about the Union’s resources, we are talking about its means of subsistence, but above all, we are talking about its means of undertaking tasks and of producing public policies. We are talking about the continuation of the European idea and of the innovative policies that Europe alone makes it possible for us to carry out.
The aim of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament is to achieve these two ambitious objectives: the continuation of the European project and political and economic innovation. The crucial thing, for Parliament, is to show the Member States that the Europe of projects, the Europe of sharing and of solidarity, is possible. This means that we cannot insist on our national advantages. It means adopting a responsible parliamentary proposal in the hope that the Council will move in the direction of a transparent, fair and effective system. The fact is, the Union’s resources, at present, really need to be simplified. This complex system has become incomprehensible to the citizens and the European decision-makers. It is an unfair and inappropriate system.
Our work, done in cooperation with the national parliaments, has convinced us that the introduction of a new budget for resources will take a long time and that it will have to take place in two stages. Currently, Community budgetary negotiations are just about a clash of national egos. An erroneous principle is being established here: the principle of fair return, which dismantles European solidarity and goes against our project. It is the poison of the European Community. The very notion of net balance should be destroyed.
Thanks to the rapporteur and to the amendments tabled by the Committee on Budgets, the text stresses the importance of abolishing, once and for all, all forms of compensation and of rebate mechanism. It is therefore logical to temporarily abolish the VAT resource, because, in its current form, it legitimises all cases in which a rebate is paid. We also confirm the options in the Böge report on the financial perspective. It is vital to link this reform of revenue to the reform of expenditure. In this context, cofinancing of the CAP may be considered, but without renationalisation.
We must first denounce the unfair system so that we can subsequently provide Europe with resources that are built on sound and fair foundations. Only then, when that is done, is Mr Lamassoure proposing to create a tax that could take various forms while preserving the Member States’ fiscal sovereignty. We support the idea of a consolidated tax, for example, corporation tax or environmental tax, as Jacques Delors was proposing as far back as 1991, or a tax on financial transactions, a tax on currency transactions.
In this report, we are not limiting the boundaries of what is possible. We are preparing for the second phase of our work. We are therefore acknowledging a nonsense system so that we can have done with it. With the exception of customs duties and certain agricultural taxes, the other receipts are not own resources.
To conclude, providing the Union with real resources means increasing Europe’s resource autonomy so that it is no longer subject to the blocking power of a given Member State. It also means making the budget consistent again. Whoever decides on expenditure must be responsible for revenue before the public. Finally, it means getting away from the idea of accounting returns which, for years, has been undermining all of our European projects and destroying the very idea of solidarity, on which Europe – the 50th anniversary of which we are celebrating – is based."@en1
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