Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-22-Speech-1-026-000"
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"en.20121022.19.1-026-000"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Mavroyiannis, Commissioner Lewandowski, in tomorrow’s vote, by means of which we ask Parliament to gives its backing, with a large majority, to the budget as approved by the Commission, we mean to send a clear signal to the Council for the next conciliation.
Before going into the merits, I would like to thank the shadow rapporteurs and all the committee members, as well as the officials and other contributors, for the work they have undertaken over the past months. As you know, the Council proposed a significant number of cuts, in stark contrast to the statements from the European Council of 28 and 29 June, at which the decision had been taken at the highest political level to invest in order to support growth and development across Europe. So, in our reading, we decided to reinstate the draft budget from the Commission and to make selective increases to resources in certain chapters of the budget which were closely related to the policies of growth and job creation, in particular for our young people.
As I have had occasion to point out before, this is not a feckless gesture, given today’s climate: we all know the fiscal difficulties confronting each Member State. But the answer to the crisis – as the European Council also pointed out – must be more Europe and not less Europe. I would characterise the position that we are to vote on tomorrow as responsible. But responsible does not mean defeatist: it means contributing to economic renewal by certain precise and selective increases, which are more limited than those in a normal reading at the European Parliament, especially in terms of commitments made, but taking account of the general climate of austerity and the sacrifices being imposed at national level.
However, I don’t believe that the Member States can accuse us of calling for increases which are not in line with today’s crisis, and I repeat that we are determined to maintain sufficient investment to bring about a new boost to the economy, responding to the pleas from our people who are suffering.
I would now like to address the question of payments. It will not have escaped anyone that this is the most delicate aspect of the negotiations, but I think we have to approach the topic from a technical rather than a political viewpoint. The level of payments set by the Commission in the draft budget has been established for each item on the basis of the Member States’ own estimates, revised downwards. So the motion for an increase of 6.8 % on 2012 is merely a realistic indication of the resources required to pay the claims from the Member States and to honour all the commitments we have made since 2007. We cannot now consider jeopardising the implementation of particular European programmes – as has happened in the past few days – and I find it inconceivable that the reading of the Council and the statements made by some ministers could be based on figures which are clearly insufficient to finance these programmes.
We have all agreed in our press statements that the answer to the crisis is Europe. It is a shame that, when we get down to specifics, these words are not followed by practical actions. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that the problem we are faced with is one of the credibility and trustworthiness of the European Union. In fact, paying the Member States’ claims is a legal obligation, which we cannot simply ignore; and it is certainly not for Parliament to explain this to the Member States.
To conclude, I would remind you of the wording of the resolution accompanying tomorrow’s vote, in which Parliament gives its Conciliation Committee a mandate not to accept the level of payments, either for the draft amending budget No 6 or for the 2013 budget, if the latter does not sufficiently cover the needs for payment during 2012 and 2013 as estimated by the Commission."@en1
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