Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-017-000"
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"en.20121023.4.2-017-000"2
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"Mr President, let me first thank you for the invitation to participate in this important debate. We all know how critical it is that we get the future multiannual financial framework right.
Following the award of the Nobel Prize to the European Union, we must more than ever show European citizens that we are able to unite around a fundamental part of the European project by doing everything to make the European Union more relevant, to prove that the European Union is part of the solution and to offer to each EU citizen a better future. I look forward to hearing your views on this issue.
The Council attaches the highest importance to the timely conclusion of this agreement. It will give the Union the means to act and the capacity to implement its policies. The timing of the agreement is crucial, but so is the quality. We also welcome the very close cooperation on this issue with this Parliament. I am particularly grateful to Mr Lamassoure and the two co-rapporteurs for this file, Reimer Böge and Ivailo Kalfin, for their commitment to this dossier and for their determination to ensure that we reach an outcome which is acceptable to both institutions.
The Cyprus Presidency has attached particular importance to continuing the practice of meeting regularly with you, and we will continue to do so until we have an agreement. I would also like to thank Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene and Ms Anna Jensen for their work on the revenue side. The Cyprus Presidency is also working very closely with the President of the European Council as the dossier moves up to the level of the Heads of State and Government.
Over the last few years, the European Union and its Member States have taken important steps in response to the challenges raised by the economic and financial crisis. Looking to the future, the next MFF must ensure that the European Union’s budget is geared to lifting Europe out of the crisis in a sustainable way. We all agree that the budget must act as a catalyst for growth and jobs across Europe, in particular by leveraging productive and human capital investments. Within the future multiannual financial framework, spending needs to be mobilised in order to support growth, employment, competitiveness and convergence, in line with the Europe 2020 strategy.
At the same time we are all aware of the constraints under which we are working. At a time of exceptional fiscal discipline it is essential that the future MFF reflects the consolidation efforts being made by Member States to bring their deficits and debt onto a more sustainable path. We must ensure that every euro spent brings European added value and that particular attention is given under the future MFF to the quality of spending.
The work is advancing well. You have seen the revised version of the negotiating box which we produced for the General Affairs Council in September. We also had an informal discussion in the margins of the General Affairs Council last week in Luxembourg. Your contribution through your representatives on that occasion was highly appreciated.
Later this week we will issue a revised version of the negotiating box. This will put forward an overall approach which will provide a range of figures for various qualitative elements in order to make proposals for the qualitative issues which are linked to the various spending areas. Concerning own resources, the Presidency yesterday released a non-paper to stimulate the discussion, particularly on the very sensitive issue of corrections. Discussions are of course continuing within the Council, and I am therefore not able, at this stage, to give you a clearer position on how the debate on the MFF or own resources is likely to evolve, but the Cyprus Presidency remains confident that, together with Parliament, we will soon be able to outline the parameters of agreement with greater certainty.
As you know, the President of the European Council has convened a Special European Council on 22/23 November and has announced that he is ready to prolong the meeting, should it prove necessary. The Cyprus Presidency very much shares this objective, and it is with this in mind that we are continuing to work intensively with all the Member States and yourselves in the run-up to the November meeting.
Mr President, honourable Members, we have been following closely your discussions on the interim report drawn up by Reimer Böge and Ivailo Kalfin on which you will be voting later. I wish to thank both of them for their work on this report. It contains a number of important points, which we will bring to the attention of Member States. The same applies to the revenue side and own resources, Mr Dehaene’s report and the work of Ms Anne Jensen. I want to thank them, too, for their excellent work and cooperation. We have had throughout – and we hope that this will continue – an outstanding level of cooperation with committee chairman Mr Lamassoure and the whole negotiating team of the European Parliament. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you personally, Mr President, for your personal involvement and assistance and, most of all, your strong commitment to providing the European Union with the most important instrument in our hands for living up to our ambitions for growth and jobs for the young generation, in order for all of us to honour the contract between generations. Achieving the best possible result on the MFF for the common good of Europe is not just a priority of the Cyprus Presidency, it is a joint endeavour involving this Parliament as well as the Commission and the European Council."@en1
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