Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-14-Speech-4-034"
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"en.20001214.1.4-034"2
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"We, the Swedish and Danish Social Democrats, have today voted in favour of the EU budget for 2001. The budget will allow the EU to implement its priority activities whilst, at the same time, maintaining budgetary discipline. The EU’s budget for next year is one of the smallest relative to the size of the Member States’ GDP.
The budget for 2001 is largely based on a compromise between Parliament, the Council and the Commission, which we support. Parliament has succeeded in driving through a number of important prioritisations – including increased efforts in the struggle against unemployment and poverty, a number of important environmental and equality issues, etc. We have voted against the right’s attacks on the LIFE programme and the European Women’s Lobby.
We have thus found the funds required in order to be able to provide strong support to the reconstruction and democratisation of the Balkans, including now in Serbia. However, the need for a long-term solution for future budget years remains.
We are critical of the scope and orientation of the EU’s agriculture policy. This needs to undergo more extensive reform in the future, partly so as to provide room for the enlargement of the EU. The EU’s agriculture policy is far too expensive. Moreover, we are highly critical of the over-production of agricultural produce and of the use of information funds by the EU to sell this surplus. We are also very critical of the extensive support given to tobacco production which, in our opinion, directly conflicts with the EU’s heightened ambitions in the area of public health.
We would also like to emphasise how important it is that the implementation of the EU’s budget is made more efficient, so that we can get a grip on the problem of the substantial backlog that exists in certain areas. The budgetary system, along with the methods for openness, auditing and political control, need to be improved and modernised quickly. We Scandinavian Social Democrats have also succeeded in driving through a proposal for increased support to local and regional cooperation in the Baltic region, which now amounts to EUR 16 million. Parliament has also increased the budget for twin town cooperation, which we consider to be an important programme for promoting local cooperation within the Union."@en1
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