Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-23-Speech-2-409"
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"en.20101123.37.2-409"2
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"Mr President, in December 2005, there was a Prime Minister who sat here in the House. I think one thing we all learned is that we really need to see a seriously reformed budget for the future. Let us all together – the Commission, the Council, Member States and the European Parliament – work out how, in the next few years, we can build a consensus for a changed and reformed Europe in which the budget is a rational part of the future and not an unfortunate piece of horse-trading.
Well, that Prime Minister was Tony Blair, the man who made the last deal on the financial perspectives. Here we are now five years later. What Mr Blair said is the essential thing that Parliament wants to achieve: the engagement of the EU institutions and all involved parties to reinvent the financing of the Union and to base this financing on rational grounds and not on a horse-trading competition, which is the case today.
On the figures, let us be very clear. It is no secret that Parliament could be ready to accept the Council figures, of course, within a broader deal. But we need also to agree on a second element, colleagues, which is flexibility. Let us be very clear on this. That flexibility is not a concession from the Council side; flexibility is necessary, indispensable, otherwise we cannot finance a number of important issues. What is more is that flexibility is an ‘acquis’. It forms part of the interinstitutional agreement that we have already. In fact, the Council has broken its word by refusing this now in this budget. Finally, and this is the most important thing, we must agree on the future financing of the Union.
Therefore, the issue of own resources must be reopened; no doubt about it. Let me be clear that own resources is not a question of changing the treaties. Own resources is also not a question of new competences. It is a question of applying the existing treaties and it is a question of financing existing competences, because the Union was always meant to have its own revenue. Mrs Merkel, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Cameron do not know this, but the Union was founded with its own revenue. That was the basis of the financing of the Union by the founding fathers.
However, we all know that with time and a contribution from a certain Iron Lady, the Union lost the link to its own resources, so instead we now have absurd discussions about who benefits more and who benefits less from the Union. Not seeking the EU interest but only focusing on the net payment position of every single Member State is what the budget is today in the European Union.
That is called business for the moment in the budget issues of the Union. This way of acting is killing the Union – it is destroying the spirit of unity in the Union and it is destroying the solidarity in the Union. I repeat we can only require genuine own resources which can also lead to what a number of countries want, which is to have less national contributions. If we do not change the system, governments and not citizens will stay in charge. If, on the contrary, we go in the direction of own resources, not governments, but citizens will be in charge. In short, you could say that own resources for Europe colleagues means more European democracy; it is the basis for a modern European democracy.
So I have one request to you Mr Barroso. My request is very simple. Whatever the format is – a convention, a conference, an IGC with or without national parliaments – do not listen to the voices of the past. Go for the future, use your right of initiative and put a formal proposal on the table as fast as possible. The pro-European majority in this House is fully behind you and behind that initiative."@en1
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