Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-214"
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"en.20030923.5.2-214"2
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"Mr President, I should like to make one or two observations with regard to social policy. I totally agree with what Mrs Jensen said on this subject a moment ago. It is regrettable that some areas leave something to be desired.
I should particularly like to ask for attention to be paid to the European Year of the disabled which we are celebrating at the moment and which is also reasonably successful. It is, in my view, very important that we should provide an opportunity for follow-up next year. I also hope that provision can be made for this in the budget during the course of this budget procedure.
I should also like to make a brief comment further to what Commissioner Barnier has stated. Needless to say, we have all looked into the figures. It is indeed satisfying to see that the situation has improved particularly over the past few months and that a little more money is being spent than during the period immediately preceding it. Despite this, I do think that we have not solved the problem by a long way. Neither am I completely convinced that we need an additional budget. I myself do not expect this at all.
What can we see happening? Countries are working out how much money they would need to spend in order to use up all the money that has been allocated to them. Those countries are saying: well, it should be this or that amount, which they subsequently find impossible to spend. They are far too optimistic and there is no monitoring procedure of any kind. I think that we ought to be extremely grateful to the Commissioner for having introduced all kinds of gentle mechanisms that will hopefully rectify the situation to some degree. For years, I have been indignant about the fact that everyone knows that there are too many payment credits and that the money is not being spent. The only thing we notice at the end of the year is that a great deal of money is retuned to the Member States. I think we should put a stop to this. This is probably more important than approving the occasional additional budget."@en1
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