Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-073-000"
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"en.20121023.4.2-073-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the honourable Members very much for this debate. I fully understand that some of you – and of course this is just a euphemism – do not support an approach which would reduce the overall size of the MFF. I very much appreciate, however, your frankness on this issue.
You are well aware that there is also a divide between Member States on this issue. I hope you appreciate that there are valid and strong arguments on both sides and different approaches regarding the best way to achieve our targets. I would like to reassure you that we are working hard on the revenue side and will soon come forward with more details regarding our approach.
Some very important institutional issues with regard to the EU budget in the aftermath of last week’s European Council were raised by the rapporteur, Mr Lamassoure, and other distinguished speakers. I will refrain, if you will allow, from commenting on them, especially since later this morning we will have the opportunity to discuss them directly with the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
Now I will comment briefly on what Ms Jensen had to say. With all due respect, I do not think that in our paper we either expressed support for the ‘juste retour’ or referred to direct payments as a holy cow. We just raised issues and questions for consideration. But maybe I did not fully grasp the gist of your point.
On FTT, we all know that it has proved impossible to fly at the level of 27. Now we are advancing with enhanced cooperation, and the Presidency is fully committed to moving this forward. But we need to be aware that this enhanced cooperation is not about an own resource but rather a national resource. It is not FTT as an own resource. What we are trying to do in the current exercise on the MFF is to find a way to establish a link between the revenue accrued in Member States participating in enhanced cooperation with own resources with a corresponding reduction to their GNI contribution. But we need to be fully aware that there are both legal and political obstacles in some Member States which otherwise would like to participate in the FTT-enhanced cooperation.
I would also like to emphasise – and reassure those Members who spoke on this issue – that a focus on less-developed regions is one of the few non-controversial issues in this debate.
When we say that the level of the MFF will unavoidably have to be revised downwards and that all headings and sub-headings will have to be affected, we are not expressing a wish. We are trying, as honest brokers, to provide radiography – an accurate presentation of the current situation. The same applies to questions regarding staff, raised in particular by Ms Roth-Behrendt. There again we need to get the right balance.
Let me once again insist on the fact that the Council has not yet come to a decision on the MFF and that discussions are continuing in a pragmatic way and with the full commitment of all – I stress of all – Member States towards reaching a timely compromise. Of course we all work on the basis that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. We will study very carefully and give full consideration to your interim reports, both on MFF and on own resources based on value added tax.
We have also listened very carefully to the views expressed here this morning and I can assure you that I will bring them to the attention of colleagues within the Council. Osmosis between the work of institutions is a key word for the Cyprus Presidency."@en1
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