Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-24-Speech-2-189"
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"en.20020924.10.2-189"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr Titley, is unable to attend the debate and has asked me to make various comments on the Committee's behalf. The Committee has set itself three objectives: firstly, to make clear which foreign policy priorities the European Union intends to set in the new financial year without wrecking the stipulated financial framework. Secondly, we want more transparency. A number of amendments to the budget's nomenclature are designed to increase the flow of resources. These proposed amendments also have no financial implications, but will lead to more budget transparency and thus facilitate budgetary control. The third issue, which is a particular priority for the draftsman of the opinion and the Committee, is to improve the security of our delegations around the world. Remedial action needs to be taken here and we want to support this process.
Let me take each of these three points in turn. On the first point, we are planning some increases in funding to reflect political priorities for the cross-border programmes under TACIS. The European Union's new external borders require more funding for cooperation across these borders, which is why we have proposed a number of increases. The second issue is nuclear safety. This too is a priority for this House, and we want to see this reflected in the budget figures for next year.
Anti-personnel mines and the rapid reaction mechanism are also areas where we have proposed budget increases. Then we have a scenario reminiscent of the film
at New Year, with the ‘same procedure as every year’, when the Commission cuts the funding for human rights and democracy budget lines and the Parliament bumps it up again. We intend to do so this year as well, and we would ask the Commission to take note for once next year that Parliament is setting these priorities and that this should be reflected in the draft budget.
In the interests of transparency, we would like Afghanistan to be a separate budget line, not a sub-item under Asia. A great deal of money will flow to Afghanistan over the coming years, so this is very important.
Finally, the draftsman has also urged us to ensure that there is, in future, regular disclosure of the budget lines for Palestine so that it can be ascertained from the outset where the money is going. In my view, better budgetary control is needed here. These are our priorities. Let me conclude by addressing a request to the Council. This House asks to be involved more closely in future when making new political promises in the foreign policy field. Otherwise, if the Council continues to make a succession of new promises without the money to back them up, we will forfeit our credibility."@en1
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"Dinner for One"1
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