Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-201"
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"en.20080902.28.2-201"2
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".
Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, first of all I would like to say how thankful I am that next year’s draft budget is now before Parliament. At the same time I wish to say how sorry I am that our Committee’s chairman, Reimer Böge, cannot be present at the debate, as he has important obligations in his country at the same time. For that reason, I will make the speech for the Committee on Budgets for him.
I want to thank the Council and its Presidency for their constructive cooperation, as at the budgetary conciliation meeting in July we made important, joint declarations which relate to the implementation of the Structural and Cohesion Funds, the European Solidarity Fund, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, and staff expenditure, besides other matters. This also bodes well for a positive atmosphere at the conciliation meeting in November. Unfortunately, the Council has not been quite as cooperative as regards the financing of the numerous new posts which were discussed and included in the resolutions at the European Council in June, for example.
The Commission’s preliminary draft budget was already very meagre. Commitment appropriations stood at EUR 134.4 billion, which is 2.6 billion below the financial perspective, and payment appropriations were even more meagre at EUR 116.7 billion. This is the equivalent in payments of just 0.9% of the EU’s GDP, which is substantially below the already extremely compromised financial framework, at an average of 1%. The Council has cut the budget further by a total of EUR 500 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 1.8 billion in payment appropriations.
In my opinion, this much reduced budget does not reflect either the EU’s or Parliament’s priorities. It is very dangerous to have made cuts to heading 1, which is vital for sustainable growth and employment. The paucity of payment appropriations is a particular threat to structural policy, which is one of Parliament’s major priorities. Its implementation has already been greatly delayed in any case.
It is quite clear that heading 1 in the budget needs to be looked at in particular, but so does heading 4, which seems to be chronically underfunded from one year to the next. At this very moment there are difficulties with Kosovo and Palestine.
Finally, I would like to raise two issues. The first is the Food Facility Instrument. The Commission is proposing approximately EUR 1 billion for the development of food aid and production in developing countries. Parliament supports this, but regrets that the Commission has not proposed any suitable instruments. The interinstitutional agreement is a good opportunity for this, and the Committee on Budgets is ready and willing to back it on this issue too.
The European Parliament is also ready to support reconstruction in Georgia. The budgetary procedure also provides opportunities for this. We hope that when the Commission makes promises on behalf of the European Union at the next Conference of Donors they will be discussed with the budgetary authorities beforehand."@en1
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