Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-019-000"
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"en.20121023.4.2-019-000"2
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".
Mr President, let me start with the own resources issue. I would like to thank the European Parliament right away for giving real impetus to the reforms and discussions. After the unhappy and rapid end of previous attempts, it was the European Parliament, through its resolution, and Alain Lamassoure personally, who again initiated the attempt to reform the revenue side. Alain was the person most insistent at the time that we should go ahead with a reform of the revenue side.
Parliament’s interim report contains a very forceful message – namely the unity of the budget. Unity can be understood in different dimensions, but it is essential to understand the unity of the European budget as the complementary nature of expenditure and revenue. Expenditure and revenue should reinforce each other and not stand in each other’s way. So we are agreed as to the deficiencies of the present system and the remedies. It is important to know that the Commission today decided to authorise enhanced cooperation on a Financial Transaction Tax. So the ball is now in play, as it is also with the VAT system which will replace the current – very complex – statistical VAT system.
To complete the revenue side of the story: if one wants – and as London, for example, has said we need – a more transparent, simple and fair system of revenue, then we have the system of annual corrections, which is very transparent, simple and fair for everybody.
I will now make a few points on horizontal issues, starting with flexibility. If there are more constraints, we need more flexibility. That is clear. What is less easy to foresee are unforeseen events, so therefore the emphasis on flexibility in our package has been increased. There is also a very clear signal in this respect in your interim report, and I would like to underscore the use of the so-called contingency margin. This has been useful on several occasions under the current financial framework – for example, the economic recovery plan was made possible through contingency margin decisions – but we are basing this on the acquis accumulated in this financial period and the experience of this financial period. So we are leaving things open on how to shape flexibility properly in the 2014-2020 budget.
On the so-called ‘large-scale projects’, our decision to place Galileo in and GMS ITER outside was based on the different nature of those large-scale projects. But what is essential is to ensure their proper financing, perhaps by ring-fencing, so again here we are in agreement. We are also in agreement, I am happy to inform you, as to the infamous ‘
’ (RAL). RALs are generated through annual budgeting, and the only real solution to the issue of these outstanding RAL commitments is through proper annual budgets and not through artificial devices that kill the predictability of commitments.
A final point concerns simplification, which is a universal request that has come from every corner of the European Union and on which we have to deliver. We have to deliver, and we have a new Financial Regulation. Inga Gräßle was a very tough partner in this negotiation, but it was very much conducive to the final goal of simplification. Now, the second stage is to ensure against the propensity to make it more complex at the level of 57 spending programmes. So we need a scan of what is sectoral, in order not to allow a watering-down of the simplification proposal under the Financial Regulation. With such important and experienced players as today’s speakers, I am sure that we can offer the European Union a decent 2014-2020 budget that provides predictability of investment for that seven-year period."@en1
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