Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-214"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.19991214.9.2-214"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, one may well say, a good thing is worth waiting for, but we have waited almost too long for this still to be good. I only have to think back to this afternoon and I must say in no uncertain terms that the situation is highly unsatisfactory and that we, the European Parliament, are now being more or less forced to circumvent our own Rules of Procedure in order to rescue and salvage what can be salvaged. I should like to repeat once again that the situation as a whole is highly unsatisfactory. It is unsatisfactory because – and this was also apparent at the Summit in Helsinki – we have a Council which blithely makes promises and then the budgetary authority, to which the Council also belongs, after all, then has to consider how everything can again be brought under control.
In addition, it is the first budget which we are required to implement in accordance with the decisions taken in Berlin on Agenda 2000 and we are already in a situation in which these decisions, yet again, cannot translate the Council’s wishes in financial terms. More and more problems will arise in the coming years when everything decided in Helsinki – and I am thinking in particular of enlargement – finally impacts on the budget. So what I expect, and this has been addressed by previous speakers here this evening, is a bit more consistency between what the Foreign Secretaries decide and what the Finance Ministers decide. I think this can be established by each government in its own Member State, and that we can then find a joint solution to the problems.
The second matter which I would like to address is that of the Technical Assistance Offices, which have also played a special role in the past. We here in Parliament have already clearly shown where the responsibility lies and have proposed clear solutions. I should like to extend my particular thanks on this matter to the rapporteur, Mr Bourlanges, who has been firm in making clear proposals with the support of this House. If anyone has done justice to their responsibility in the procedure for Budget 2000, then it was the European Parliament. I should like to stress once again at this point: we cannot keep on moving hand over hand, as it were, from one budget to the next and from one crisis to the next; on the contrary, the Council must pave the way so that we can put an end to such problems once and for all!
As far as the small budgets are concerned, and here thanks go to Mr Virrankoski, we are on the safe side and everything is under control. I think that Parliament too, with its own budget, must do as it would be done by. That too is a very important point. I refer in particular to travel costs for officials on active service, another problem which requires an urgent solution, and all the other points which, in my view, we solved at first reading and which we can now clear up once and for all."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples