Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-475"
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honour for me to be here in Parliament. It is true that this Chamber personifies the European construct and it is therefore not without some emotion that I take the floor today on a subject as important as the preparation of the budget for 2011; and all the more so given that this is a brand new procedure in which Parliament’s role has been very clearly enhanced. Together, therefore, we are going to inaugurate the procedure set out in the Treaty of Lisbon in terms of preparing the budget for 2011. That is why it is even more important to me to be present today and to make this speech in this House.
I would also draw your attention to the methodology adopted by the Council, which is perfectly in line with the most recent budget estimates; total commitment and payment appropriations are clearly rising, both in absolute values and as a percentage.
I do not intend to go over all the elements of the budget heading by heading. I should simply like to remind you that, under heading 1A, we know that, for Parliament, policy on young people is a priority. This was in all Parliament’s documents. It is true that we fall slightly short of the Commission proposal, but these budgets are still clearly higher than in 2010.
As far as heading 1B is concerned, all the amounts entered in this budget have indeed been determined on the basis of their current implementation, by adhering carefully to how they are implemented today.
Let us not forget that, under heading 4, the Council is very anxious to maintain the European Union’s ability to react efficiently to political, economic and social challenges, especially at international level, and we are well aware that new budget requirements may emerge during the current budgetary procedure.
I should also point out that, under heading 5, we have obviously not changed the demands made by the European Parliament in terms of its administrative budget, but we do feel that it is important for each of our institutions to make an effort to stay within the financial framework and abide by our current roadmap.
To conclude, I think that it was very important to make you party to this presentation, that it was vital for the Council to be present today and to show what our thinking was within the framework of the preparation of the budget. I realise that Parliament’s perception may differ from the position adopted by the Council, but I expect negotiations with Parliament to be constructive and fruitful and I also thank the Commission for its support during the procedure, which looks set to be brimming with challenges.
My speech would not be complete without a reference to the budget review which the Commission will publish at the end of this month. In fact, the priorities for the 2011 budget, especially the EU 2020 strategy, will, without doubt, be the priorities for future years. With this in mind, the Council and Parliament must start looking more deeply, as of now, at the future architecture of the European budget and at how it is to be financed. I can assure you that the Belgian Presidency will make sure that the Council attaches particular importance to the budget review.
Finally, to come back to the 2011 budget itself, I assure you that the Belgian Presidency will do everything it can to overcome the obstacles in the path to this budget, which will be the first to be negotiated under the Treaty of Lisbon. I truly hope that we shall be able to show that this development, in terms of procedure, will have been a success. The Council will spare no pains to ensure that the budget benefits the maximum number of European citizens, who are the taxpayers who ultimately finance our budget.
I should like to reiterate that, within the framework of this collaboration, of these discussions that we need to hold in keeping with the new procedure set out in the Treaty of Lisbon, we have had a number of good initial contacts. The initial trialogues went quite well and that augurs well for the future.
The Council is aware that Parliament regrets the absence of political discussion during the preparation and drafting of the Council position. It is true that the work was carried out within the Committee on Budgets, but I must stress that it was carried out within the framework of political guidelines which were very clearly defined by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on 16 March 2010 and it is only so as to comply with the first protocol on the role of the national parliaments that the Council formally adopted its position under a written procedure on 12 August of this year. This therefore has nothing to do with the political scope of the Council position. The budgetary procedure for 2011 is a first for all of us, with its new rules, and we will obviously need to learn lessons from it in future.
Obviously, the Council has prepared this budget on the basis of a number of principles: the need to respect the financial perspective 2007-2013 and guarantee sound financial management and – and this is a second important principle – the need to guarantee sufficient margins so as to be able to extract the various political positions of the European Union and make them real and credible.
The preparation of this budget should be re-placed within the framework of the budgetary prudence which has been needed in each of the Member States of the European Union. We had a particularly difficult year in 2009, and this budgetary prudence also needs to be reflected in the 2011 budget.
I should like, if you will allow, to go over the various guidelines for the 2011 budget in greater detail and then to run through some of the headings which I think it is important to highlight here today.
We are proposing a budget of EUR 142 billion in commitment appropriations; this represents a reduction of EUR 788 million compared with the Commission proposal. As for payment appropriations, the Council has adjusted them by EUR 3.6 billion compared with the appropriations proposed by the Commission in its draft, which represents a reduction of 2.8%.
In this context, the Council has also taken account of the Commission’s indications in terms of payments for the 2007 and 2013 cohesion policy programmes and, above all, of the latest information on the start-up and cruising speed planned for major projects. As we have in fact seen, there has been a delay in implementing a number of them.
May I also emphasise that, following the reduction applied by the Council, total payment appropriations have still increased substantially, by 2.91% compared with 2010. That represents nearly 1% above zero growth, or the inflation target set in the Multiannual Financial Framework."@en1
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