Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-23-Speech-2-224"
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"en.20071023.23.2-224"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Council has done this year what it always does: it has allowed its civil servants in the Ministries of Finance to put together a budget that takes into account the Council’s main aim which is ‘keep the figures down’ and, most importantly, ‘keep payments down’.
It bears no relation to the political plans that we in the European Union want to implement – no relation at all! The Council in its many formations is still in the habit of preaching on Sundays and being content to let others, that is, Parliament, do the real work for the rest of the week. It does not matter whether the issue is external policy matters, or aid for Kosovo or Palestine or about implementing policies on competitiveness for growth and employment that are extremely important for Europe, vital to its survival, in fact.
Parliament looked ahead and pointed out, even during negotiations on the financial perspective 18 months ago, that there would be problems with financing exactly these policies within the foreseeable future. However, our message fell on deaf ears and now the Council has to make it up as it goes along. Sooner than we expected, we are facing a situation where we are having to provide public funds to rescue the Galileo project because the dream of entrepreneurial initiative has collapsed. The European Parliament was able to agree fairly quickly that it would finance the beginning of the Galileo project with European money, by using the ‘Community method’. We see anything else as quackery, and want no part of it.
We are prepared to provide Galileo with EUR 2.4 billion from 2008 to 2013, in addition to the EUR 1 billion that were already planned. However, since the required funds are not available in Heading 1a, and are not going to fall from the sky, we are prepared to take it from other budget categories, from Heading 2 2007 and 2008, making EUR 2.2 billion, and EUR 220 million from Heading 5. Certainly that is a lot of money from Heading 2, but it is possible without farmers being deprived of funds. Prices for agricultural products are high on the world market, so our subsidies can be reduced.
The transaction for which we created the basis in the Budget Committee in the first reading, is called a ‘minor revision’. Pah! The Council avoids even the most minor of revisions like the plague but that is the Council’s problem. Anyway, we are prepared to create the preconditions for Galileo, a flagship of European technological innovation.
That fact that, as part of this minor revision, we are prepared to make funds available for the European Institute of Technology is, for us, worth only passing mention, due to the size, well, actually the smallness, of the amount initially required: EUR 2.9 million from 2008 to 2013. We expect the Council to get moving and to come to Parliament and move in our direction.
Mr President, allow me one further remark. We really expected the Finance Minister or at least a State Secretary from the Portuguese Council Presidency to attend this debate at the first reading, so that we could welcome his presence. Nothing against you, Mr Mourato, but even the Portuguese Vice-President of our own Parliament is no substitute in this instance."@en1
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