Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-22-Speech-1-028-000"
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"en.20121022.19.1-028-000"2
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"Mr President, I will of course concentrate on the budget of the other sections, including Parliament’s own budget. Regarding the latter, it is always difficult to set your own budget, and this year it is even more difficult, as we face tough economic and financial times. Therefore, the European Parliament took very seriously the Commissioner’s letter earlier this year when he suggested to all the institutions that they limit the increase for 2013 to 1.9 %. Since the start of this year, the aim of this Parliament has been to keep our increase below 1.9 %, including the extra costs incurred because of Croatia.
We started with a figure of 2.4 % earlier this year, but straightaway we started to look for savings. We agreed to freeze all Members’ allowances – the daily and office allowances – and we agreed to cut our travel budget once again. We also set up a working group between the Committee on Budgets and the Bureau to look at further savings. This working group, I am glad to say, has been able to identify more savings. We have been able to find a 5 % cut in the travel budget. We have decided to save EUR 5.3 million from the budget line for the House of European History, and we have found other ways of finding EUR 3.1 million to fund the expansion of wifi within the European Parliament buildings themselves. I am pleased to say that, at a recent conciliation meeting between the Bureau and the Committee on Budgets, we agreed a 1.9 % increase for Parliament’s budget – including the extra cost of Croatia – but also including the 1.7 % proposed salary increases. So when colleagues do the mathematics and look at the actual increase proposed for Parliament’s budget next year, they will see it is well below 1 % – indeed I believe what we are proposing is nearer 0.6 %.
At this stage I want to thank the members of the Budget Committee and the Bureau for their cooperation, but also all my shadows for their cooperation. We have worked extremely hard to get an increase at this level. I think that shows in the fact that there are no budget line amendments to be voted on tomorrow and that we are able, I believe, to stick to the agreement we reached with the Bureau some time ago. Therefore, this Parliament is able to say that we have set in place a responsible budget for 2013 and that we will continue to look for further savings.
As rapporteur, I have also been encouraging other institutions to set a responsible budget. I believe it was a mistake by the Council some time ago to propose a blanket freeze for all the budgets of all the institutions. All the institutions are different, with different needs and different pressures, and therefore we should be looking at their budgets individually. Certainly that is what I have done as rapporteur – I have sat down with each institution to look at their budgets in great detail. I am therefore proposing that we partially reinstate the budget of most of the other institutions to around the 1.9 % figure I mentioned earlier.
However, there are a few institutions which are likely to come in a little higher than that because of their own special circumstances. I believe the Ombudsman, the Court of Justice and the European External Action Service also have special circumstances and may warrant an increase of slightly above the 1.9 % figure. I hope that tomorrow, my colleagues will accept these proposals for Parliament’s budget and also for the budget of all the other institutions. It has been a tough budget, but I do believe we have achieved our aim – a 1.9 % increase – while at the same time making savings but also protecting the effectiveness of this Parliament and of individual Members of this Parliament."@en1
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