Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-297"
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"en.20081022.21.3-297"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin by thanking Mrs Haug for her sterling efforts in keeping all the different aspects of this budget procedure together. The Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe support the result of the vote in the Committee on Budgets. For the ALDE Group, energy and climate policy, as well as research and innovation, were important priorities for the 2009 budget. We share Mrs Haug’s view that climate and energy policy are not adequately reflected in the budget, and we look forward to the Commission coming up with a clear proposal in the spring as to how this area can be given budgetary support at EU level. In view of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, it was important to the ALDE Group both to secure reconstruction aid for Georgia and to support the development of the Nabucco gas pipeline, which is intended to ensure a supply of gas to Europe outside Russian control. We are pleased that a majority has supported these priorities.
The present draft budget eliminates a number of the Council’s savings and gives a more realistic assessment of the needs for payment over the coming years. We will hit the ceiling in the multi-annual agreement for the budget in three headings, namely 1a for research, education and transport and Heading 3b for legal policy, and we will go beyond the ceiling in Heading 4, foreign policy. The budgetary ceilings for foreign policy go on being too restrictive, and every year we have to fight to fund new priorities. It is strange to see heads of state writing out bills for the EU budget that their own finance ministers will not honour. The Commission has proposed funding the food facility for developing countries using the money saved from the EU’s export refunds. The money has, of course, been saved as a result of the high food prices which, in turn, create problems of starvation in poor countries. The idea is right, but in terms of the budget we must do things differently so that we comply with the agreements entered into between the institutions. Therefore, we are now proposing that the food facility and extra appropriations to Palestine, Kosovo and Afghanistan be found by using reserves, for example, the flexibility reserve. It is not fair to obtain this money by cutting down on important programmes for poor countries.
The ALDE Group has tabled a proposal to place 12% of the funds from the Structural Funds programmes in reserve. The background to this proposal was that we wanted to pressure the Commission into doing more to avoid the errors in the region of 12% that emerged during the debate for the discharge of the 2006 budget. It was our intention for this reserve to be used as an instrument to follow up on the 2006 discharge, but we could not get sufficient support to take this path, and so we will have to take note of this, but I hope the Commission will take action.
Mr Lewandowski had an interesting task in preparing Parliament’s and the other institutions’ budget. I think he has managed to obtain a good compromise in which Parliament’s budget stays below 20% of the administrative expenditure."@en1
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