Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-19-Speech-2-240"
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"en.20101019.20.2-240"2
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"Mr President, Mr Wathelet, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, my task is to settle a 2010 budgetary item, in so far as possible, and assess a motion for amendment, an amended budget. This issue involves a promise made by the Commission some years ago to provide reasonable compensation for banana producing countries, and we must keep this promise. The only slight problem with this is that when the Commission made this decision and this announcement, it did not discuss it with any of the branches of the budgetary authority at the appropriate levels, and has still not managed to come up with a proposal acceptable to all parties affected. The sum involved is EUR 300 million, of which EUR 75 million would have to be paid from the 2010 budget. The question is where it should come from. And this is where the Council and Parliament still disagree, after two unsuccessful trialogues.
Unfortunately it has not been possible to reach anything close to an agreement, even though a compromise is definitely needed, because these payments would be made to countries in situations which, in all fairness, clearly need this compensation. We cannot reach an agreement with the Council, however, because in our view, this is, in fact, a new task which is not included in the preliminary draft budget, and we invented an instrument called the flexibility instrument for precisely this type of situation. This is what it is meant for, to resolve problems such as this one, and it has an appropriate legal framework as well as funds ready to be mobilised. However, the Council was of the opinion that given the current state of affairs, Member States are not willing to mobilise this instrument, as it would require further payments, and national budgets are in no position to make them. In Parliament, however, we held the view that our existing programmes which are already under way are not in a position to allow for funds to be taken away, and we failed to arrive at a compromise solution. Therefore, to my greatest regret and with the support of the vast majority of the Committee on Budgets, I have to propose to Parliament that we, the Parliament, also reject amending budget No 6, the Commission’s motion for compromise tabled before us, which has not been adopted by the Council.
Mr President, in this debate, I am also supposed to be given the floor on behalf of the Committee on Regional Development. Let me combine these two speeches and say that I would like to pay tribute to the Commission, as it has done all that it could, in full compliance with the rules and upper limits specified in the 2011 budget. We all know that the European Union is underfinanced. The funds required to perform tasks should be increased. However, we also need to know that we are short of funds, and we have to manage available funds in a better way. In terms of regional development, it was very painful for us to see that the Council has also withdrawn or cut back regional development expenditure. What we have seen is the greatest reduction in payment appropriations in the history of the past ten years. In our view, it will be impossible to function like this. Therefore, what will follow now is a reconciliation meeting, where positions will hopefully get closer, and we will also have an adequate budget for the banana producing countries. Thank you for your attention."@en1
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