Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-16-Speech-2-148"
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"en.20031216.4.2-148"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, representative of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to begin by saying that, following the events of last weekend, and what has already been said here this afternoon, the main virtue of this 2004 budget, for an institutionally very complex year, is the mere fact that it exists at all.
The budget offers stability and confidence, key factors if enlargement is to be a success. It is therefore essential that the Commission and national administrations respond effectively. This Parliament has offered its support for the reform of the Commission and its request for posts, because we believe that the Union’s budget is synonymous with credibility, and there can be no credibility when in the last three financial years the average use of available payment appropriations stood at 85%, according to the European Court of Auditors.
The agreement between the Council and Parliament has once again been in the interests of the citizens. Once again, Parliament has demonstrated flexibility in the negotiations, without relinquishing its political priorities. The work of the rapporteurs, of the chairman of our committee, Mr Wynn, and of the Members who have participated, has been of great merit, because, amongst other things, the agreement allows us to maintain a level of spending which is in line with the efforts of the States to achieve a balance in their public accounts, to deal with the Union’s basic commitments in processes of institutional crisis – I would remind you that next May there will be a Latin American-European Union Summit, and it is important to stress that, from a budgetary point of view, the creation of a solidarity fund has also been promoted – and, finally, give value to Community policies which have, and will have in the future, a fundamental role. I am talking, for example, about the financial support for programmes such as Argo, which is essential to the common management of migratory flows and the control of external borders, as well as the approval of a Community initiative in favour of the victims of terrorism, which, beyond the sums which have been directed towards them, demonstrate to the citizens that the Union is involved in the fight against terrorism in any of its forms."@en1
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