Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-14-Speech-2-502"
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"en.20101214.36.2-502"2
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"Mr President, like the Commissioner, I do not have much to add in relation to this discussion.
Quite simply, having heard some Members say that they preferred not to approve the budget in order to affirm Parliament’s joint decision-making powers, I think that all the European institutions have much more to gain and will increase their standing if they can actually take the European Union forward by finding compromises, instead of everyone blocking each other and not moving forward with European projects.
I think that this is a question of logic, and today I really want to thank all those who have chosen to build Europe and to move forward. Does the Council have everything that it wanted? No. Does Parliament have everything that it wanted? Of course not. Are we moving forward? Yes. This codecision procedure has functioned; it has worked. Everyone has made some compromises. Everyone has made some concessions.
Is there still much to be done? Of course. Clearly, that is what the debate on flexibility and ITER is all about. I regret the fact that we were not able to reach an agreement, and I have heard it said that the proposal tabled was a step backwards. No. I repeat: we have this during every debate, and today it is unanimity. If the aim is to move towards qualified majority, then I think that the Belgian Presidency’s proposal must be taken up. I think that this is essential when it comes to drafting the 2012 and 2013 budgets. I think that this mechanism really must be promoted, since it conforms to past practices, but it at least ensures that the 2012 and 2013 budgets can no longer be blocked by unanimity. I believe that you really must seize this opportunity.
Concerning ITER, the way in which we have used this flexibility mechanism for ITER 2010 clearly shows that we will need this mechanism and that we must take up what is before us today.
I would like to sincerely thank all those speakers – and I will not mention them all – who have acknowledged the work that we have done together to move forward. I would like to thank all those who preferred the logic of progress to the logic of blocking. I think that we really must promote this logic.
Mr Lamassoure, you spoke of budgetary solidarity. In the Council, we had almost total solidarity, as everyone accepted the increase of 2.91%. We have gone from having a qualified majority to having total unanimity within the Council. Joking aside, I think that all of the statements annexed to this 2011 budget – because, yes, a budget in itself is also political, as Parliament showed with the political priorities that it included in the budget – whether on own resources, on European added value, on Lisbonisation – the Commission’s declaration – or in the context of this joint statement, which is important and which has already been followed by a letter from the Belgian Prime Minister, the current President of the European Union, I think that all these statements show that all the stages are going in the right direction. We are certainly not moving as quickly as everyone would like, but we are moving quickly enough that we can say that the machine is in working order and that it is better to adhere to this logic of progress than to a logic of blocking."@en1
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