Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-08-Speech-3-008-000"
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"en.20110608.3.3-008-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Lewandowski, ladies and gentlemen, we have had 23 years of financial perspectives, four distinct periods that have helped EU expenditure and income to evolve in a well-ordered way. The existence of the financial perspectives is what has allowed the Union’s programmes to be carried out. This is why this debate and the vote following it are so important to the Union’s finances. Parliament is taking the political initiative in Europe’s budget for the first time. The Commission and the Council will have to react to this proposal and put forward their alternatives.
Parliament has drafted a proposal that is defined by consensus and collaboration. It has involved one year of work, 1 100 amendments and 120 commitments, with 11 parliamentary committees and 10 national parliaments having contributed to it. I would like to congratulate all the officials and assistants who have worked over the past year to make this report possible.
There has also been institutional cooperation from the College of Commissioners, headed by José Manuel Durão Barroso, with the Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget, Janusz Lewandowski, having provided particular support. We hope that the proposal they put forward on 29 June will be in line with the recommendations made in our report.
We can no longer carry on making more Europe with a smaller budget. We want an end to the bad habit of accepting solemn political commitments that cannot possibly be funded. We have had enough experience on this issue with the Lisbon strategy, and we do not want the 2020 strategy to be another failure that only serves to increase disappointment and euroscepticism. That is why we are making the Europe 2020 strategy the backbone of the forthcoming financial perspective.
We firmly believe in the efficacy of EU expenditure. One euro administered by the EU budget is more efficient than one euro spent individually by 27 national budgets. We have proved the idea of added value and we believe it can be applied to practically all EU programmes. We call on the European Commission to make this a reality.
There can be no European policy without sufficient funding for the agricultural policy and the cohesion policy. That is why we are asking the Council to maintain the level of expenditure for these two policies beyond 2013. Research, development, innovation, investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, trans-European communication and energy interconnection networks, climate change and education are just some of the priorities that this EU budget must cover.
Cutting the EU budget is not a viable option for those of us who believe in a competitive Europe. We consider that an increase of at least 5% is needed over the total expenditure in the current financial perspective. This increase is the minimum requirement for meeting the needs of the major traditional policies as well as our new priorities. This 5% is an exercise in political realism, and should be the basis for future interinstitutional negotiation, along with the sensible proposal put forward in this report, agreed between the groups in this Chamber, on a new system of own resources.
This period of crisis and rescue plans may be the worst possible time for starting negotiations on the financial perspective, but for all those of us who believe in the EU budget as an instrument needed to transform 27 Member States into a true Union, the challenge is before us, and our sights must be set high enough to tackle it.
The good and bad aspects of the report will come out in today’s debate, both praise and criticism. I know it is impossible for this Chamber to give its unanimous support on such a sensitive issue, but I would like to thank the political groups for their generosity in seeking consensus, and the skills they have contributed over this period. Thanks to them, the final report is infinitely better than anything that I could have produced without their support."@en1
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