Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-153"
Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
---|---|
rdf:type | |
dcterms:Date | |
dcterms:Is Part Of | |
dcterms:Language | |
lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031021.5.2-153"2
|
lpv:hasSubsequent | |
lpv:speaker | |
lpv:spokenAs | |
lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I will begin, of course, by congratulating our rapporteurs, Mrs Gill and Mr Mulder. What I would like to say to you is this: we have on the table the last budget to be adopted in this Parliamentary term, and our minds are turning more and more towards the multiannual financial framework which will guide our budgetary policy in the medium and long term. The Commission is discussing the foundations of that framework, and Parliament will have to deliver its opinion on it. The report ordered on this issue by President Prodi gives us some cause for concern, as, of course, does the crucial question of economic and social cohesion. The overriding feature of the budget of any federal state – which is increasingly what we want our budget to be – must be its redistributive function. In a democratic, politically coherent and socially responsible Europe, such redistribution can only be achieved if economic and social cohesion is the central aim. That, moreover, is the case in those Member States which have a more federal structure, such as Germany.
The Sapir report is based on the premise that there is a conflict between cohesion and growth. To us, that premise seems ideologically motivated and unsound. Good cohesion policies are, by their nature, good economic growth policies, just as bad cohesion policies are also, by their nature, bad economic growth policies. What is worrying about the way the Community budget works at present is precisely that budgetary redistribution sometimes redounds to the benefit of more central countries or regions, and even large companies or multinationals. That tendency can be seen in product sale subsidies and export refunds. These are the areas which should be reviewed more thoroughly; these are the mechanisms and distortions which the next financial framework must tackle, and which must continue to act as the ultimate guiding principle of the Community budget."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples