Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-07-Speech-1-084"
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"en.20080707.16.1-084"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this week, Parliament is deciding on the political priorities of the budget under difficult circumstances, both internally and externally. We are having to cope with many challenges, while the framework of the financial perspective is very limited. I therefore particularly welcome the courageous political work done by our rapporteur, Mrs Haug. She has managed to anticipate the stages of the budgetary procedure to enable us to determine where our institution is heading. This new procedure provides greater clarity, and therefore greater democracy, for citizens. It has thus been possible to understand and discuss the priorities of the parliamentary committees and political groups.
Unfortunately, I must once again deplore the Council’s lack of ambition and the systematic nature of the cuts it made to the Commission’s preliminary draft budget. We note that its aim is to save money on administrative expenditure. This is not a matter of identifying a political priority but of making technical savings that often double the margin in some headings, as Mr Färm said regarding sub-heading 1a. Similarly, I cannot explain the linear cuts made in payments: EUR 1 billion less than the preliminary draft budget.
As regards heading 2, matters are clear. In 2008 we left an unused margin of more than EUR 3 billion. For the 2009 budget, the Commission is proposing a margin of more than EUR 2 billion, and the Council is going further by increasing this margin to EUR 2.4 billion. However, needs are plentiful in rural development, and also in energy, immigration, climate change and international solidarity.
At a time when the food sovereignty issue is becoming more pressing with every passing day, and when it looks like if we do nothing, eating will become a luxury in Europe, the Council has decided to reduce agricultural expenditure. Even if you have not touched the budget lines within our traditional priority, you have forgotten to increase all those for which you are making promises. Similarly, after the recent failure of the Irish referendum and the French and Dutch referendums two years ago, does it not seem that communicating with and informing citizens are important activities that require considerable investment? By denying this essential need to inform, communicate with and listen to citizens, we are reaping the results of this autism in each consultation and opinion poll.
Finally, I will never understand the Council’s behaviour when it comes to heading 4. The observation is clear, and is always the same. This heading is dramatically underfunded, so we should not allow promises to be made that will never be kept. How can we hope to solve the problems associated with developing multilateral relations, problems of hunger in the world or the consolidation of democracy, and not propose an increase? You are even suggesting cuts for the policies that are working.
There is only one thing we can do in the next few weeks: go over both the monitoring and the writing of each budget line again, but also explore all the possibilities for achieving a budgetary framework that gives the European Union a realistic, unifying budget for 2009."@en1
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