Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-13-Speech-4-070"
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"en.20071213.7.4-070"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, may I emphasise, before going on to comment on the results of the approval of the European Union budget for 2008, that today is a particularly pleasing day for me, not only as a European, but also as a citizen of Portugal. I am of course referring to that historic event – the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon – due to take place in just over an hour in my country’s capital. Following the enlargement of the European Union to 27 Member States, it is another decisive step in European integration, that will make Europe more democratic, more representative, more flexible and effective in the way it works than it was before.
If I might make a brief and early summing up of the achievements of the Portuguese Presidency, I would point to three important areas of success for the future of the European Union. They are the agreement making it possible for the EU Reform Treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon, to be signed today, the holding of the EU-Africa Summit and of the EU-Brazil Summit. To that we might now also add the important agreement we were able to reach on the financing of the strategic Galileo Programme.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we have the second reading of the 2008 budget, the final stage of a long process of negotiation which finally ended very successfully. I am pleased to report the agreement reached between our two institutions in the concertation meeting on 23 November, that dealt in full with all the budget proposals for 2008 on which we had agreed by that date.
In accordance with the procedures, I must point out that the Council will be able to accept the maximum rate of increase resulting from your second reading. I note, however, that some small adjustments are still needed as regards the classification of expenditure on which the Council reserves its rights.
In conclusion, Mr President, I should like to take this opportunity to express once more my gratitude to the Chairman of the Committee on Budgets, Mr Böge and to the two rapporteurs, Mr Virrankoski and Mr Itälä, to my colleagues in the Council, to Commissioner Grybauskaité and to all those who have helped to bring this very demanding budgetary procedure to a successful conclusion, culminating in Parliament’s approval."@en1
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