Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-26-Speech-2-015"
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"en.19991026.2.2-015"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the budget is the political programme cast in figures; this is the short-and-sweet summary normally used to explain the budget plan. Although many decisions are taken at European level which are not directly reflected in the European Union budget, nevertheless Budget 2000 is a crucial and defining basis for many areas of European policy in the coming year.
I would like to mention the issue of the TAO, i.e. the issue of when external offices should be brought in to help. Mr Bourlanges, you quite rightly point out that this is not just a matter of better supervision and better contracts, although these are important issues, but also of the basic questions: “what should be handled by the public administration and what can be done and under what conditions by private enterprise? Therefore, these questions obviously concern the entire Commission staff. The new Commission has been able to meet the initial staffing requirements for the newly established Directorates-General through restructuring. However, the total staffing requirement now obviously depends on the institutional reforms for which the Commission will submit a blueprint, a proposal, in February.
I hope that in the coming weeks we will be able to bring the proposals in the report into line with the Commission’s schedule for reforms.
Regarding the OLAF staff, the Commission will incorporate into its letter of amendment the proposal of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Budgets to provide 75 new jobs next year.
A brief word on agriculture. The Commission fully agrees with Parliament that the second pillar, the measures for rural development, presents a great opportunity, in particular for agro-ecological development. It will therefore propose in its letter of amendment, an appropriation increase which, although lower than that of Parliament, is nevertheless considerable. The Commission will also take account of the request to provide funds in the budget for the fisheries agreement with Morocco.
We are agreed that Budget 2000 should ensure EUR 500 million in commitment appropriations to finance the reconstruction of Kosovo. The Council decided at the first reading to finance an across-the-board cut in the appropriations for external action. You have made it known as a parliament that you consider this course to be untenable. The Commission has authorised me to inform you that the Commission will propose another course which will take account of both the ideas on policy prioritisation and the ideas on budgetary discipline. The Commission proposes financing the necessary funds firstly by making adjustments within the external action Category, secondly by using the smaller part of the flexibility reserve and thirdly by making adjustments between policy areas, which will entail a change in the Financial Perspective. This is a course which was established in the joint
agreement, the interinstitutional agreement between Parliament, the Council and the Commission, in May of this year.
European taxpayers would, I believe, not understand it if we simply requested additional funds to finance work in Kosovo without taking the difficult course of prioritisation, which means in practice reallocating funds.
On the other hand, the increasing tasks of the Union in external action will also need to be reflected in the structure of the budget. The budget should be an expression of political tasks and priorities, which ultimately means an increase in the external action Category.
I hope that, on the basis of preliminary work carried out by all institutions and, in particular, the reports of Parliament before us, we will reach agreement on Budget 2000 through a positive, open debating process which befits the major political responsibility we have for European policy.
Since the drawing up of the preliminary draft budget in the spring there have been important events which could not have been anticipated at the time but which will and must be reflected in Budget 2000. Most importantly, this year we have had to experience a war on European soil necessitated by the most atrocious violations of human rights and by a policy of expulsion and ethnic cleansing on the part of the Milosevic regime; a policy which could not be tolerated by a democratic Europe and by a democratic international community committed to human rights.
Europe at the close of the 20th century must not accommodate any policy of expulsion, or indeed murder of minorities. The European Union has assumed the responsibility for financing reconstruction in Kosovo, where it is not just a matter of reconstructing bridges, schools and the technical infrastructure, but rather the total reconstruction of a democratic and peaceful civilian society in the region. I am glad, therefore, that there is absolute consensus, absolute agreement between Parliament, the Council and the Commission, on making available in the EU budget the necessary funds for Kosovo.
I think it is worth stressing the point that everyone is aware of the responsibility and stands by the commitment to finance the reconstruction of Kosovo. The preliminary draft budget of the Commission from April of this year provides for a total of EUR 92.8 billion for all expenditure commitments which may be entered into during the coming year and EUR 89.6 billion for payments. However, as I have already said, this preliminary draft budget of the Commission does not take into account Kosovo, East Timor, Turkey and the fisheries agreement with Morocco.
The Council draft reckons with EUR 92.4 billion for commitments and EUR 87.9 billion for payments and the amendments adopted by the European Parliament Committee on Budgets give overall commitments of EUR 93.4 billion and payments of EUR 90.8 billion. Then in addition there are the funds needed for Kosovo, East Timor, Turkey and the fisheries agreement. I would like to add that there are a further EUR 15 million to be financed in the budget 2000 (directly, i.e. not from the development fund) as a contribution by the European Union to debt redemption initiatives for the poorest countries.
I have given these aggregate figures for four reasons. Firstly: for all three sets of figures in question, i.e. those of the Commission in its preliminary draft, of the Council and of Parliament, the expenditure to be appropriated for the year 2000 in fact exceeds the totals for this year. The reason for this, which must be stressed, is as follows: the necessary payments, e.g. for structural operations in particular, are increasing next year due to the commitments from previous years and the Commission fully agrees with Parliament that it is not right in these instances to appropriate lower amounts than the standing commitments require. That would be a dubious policy.
Secondly: in all three sets of figures some of the appropriations for commitments which may be newly entered into are, conversely, far below the corresponding amounts for this year even though, for example, the appropriations for pre-accession aid, i.e. in the case of the funds which are being allocated to the applicant countries, show a large increase. In short (and I would like to say this in reply to the speech of the Council also) this means that budgetary discipline is not just required of the Member States, but is clearly also being exercised at European level.
Thirdly: the aggregate figures also show, however, that ideas on budgetary appropriations, in particular those of the Council and Parliament, are still far removed from one another and, consequently, intensive debates lie before us in the coming weeks. Fourthly: the aggregate figures are, of course, also an indication of the work which has been carried out by the committees, in particular by the rapporteurs, and, on behalf of the Commission, I would therefore like to thank Mr Virrankoski for his report on the individual plans of Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Mr Pittella for his report on the operating budget of the European Coal and Steel Community and particularly Mr Bourlanges for his report, which again shows him to be an excellent rapporteur and a master of highly sophisticated
proposals.
Besides budgetary appropriation levels, the report deals with important issues of budgetary economy and administration."@en1
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