Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-226"
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"en.20071211.35.2-226"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank and pay tribute to the rapporteurs, Mr Virrankoski and Mr Itälä. They have done a very competent and responsible job and, in so doing, have also been able to keep the budget down at a lower level than I had thought possible at the outset. But they were, of course, obliged to work within the limits imposed on them and I would point out that these limits are unreasonable.
Firstly, the revenue side is essentially a predetermined amount. About 1% of gross national income goes to the EU. But that is not how it should happen in a rational system. The right approach is first to decide what the EU has to do, then see how much it will cost, and finally collect the money for it. What should not be done is first to collect money and then wonder what it can be spent on. That is quite the wrong way to proceed, and everyone knows it. So let us change it!
Secondly, we know that at least 75% of the money spent by the EU is devoted to completely useless and harmful causes. Hence we have a huge amount of money to spend on useful projects. Roughly half is still spent in practice on the agricultural policy and a further quarter to a third on something called ‘the structural funds on the structural side’. In fact the EU should not be doing any of this.
What the EU should be doing is to develop and monitor regulatory systems for the internal market and for environmental cooperation. This costs amazingly little. If we switch to this for the future, we shall be able to reduce the EU contribution and still have money left for other things that the EU should be doing. In my opinion, these include Galileo, which is now to be financed. That is a success. We should invest heavily in basic research, since that would enable us to develop fusion energy. This is the proper task of the EU. Not agents to combat forest fires, structural adjustment to globalisation and other schemes which are pure propaganda spending."@en1
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