Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-25-Speech-3-025"
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, the Vice-President of the Commission has set out the Commission’s priorities for 2005, and, if the objectives and expectations of European policy are to be met, the necessary resources must be made available; 2005 will be the second year in which our Budget will cover a European Union of 25 Member States, and I very much hope that we will, at first reading, agree on a Budget for a European Union to which all the people of Cyprus will belong.
The Financial Perspective, which, last year, we adjusted to take account of enlargement, lays down the financial framework for the coming financial year. The adjustment was made in accordance with the decisions taken in Copenhagen and in line with the amendments introduced by your House. The decisions taken in Copenhagen, as set down in the accession treaties, set out the financial commitments made to the new Member States. In addition, the Council has made decisions concerning the augmentation of pre-accession aid for Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, which means that enlargement has left its unmistakeable stamp on the changes in the 2005 Budget in comparison with this year’s. Whilst the enlargement of the EU is a great gain in political, economic and ecological terms, it also presents challenges to the new Member States, who must implement all the EU’s laws, and also to the Commission, which, as guardian of the treaties, must ensure that they do so, and that their integration over the coming years is successful.
To do this, there will have to be changes in the Commission’s personnel. As long ago as 2002, the Commission presented the overall development plan, according to which a total of 3 900 new posts are necessary. It is planned that there will be 700 additional posts in 2005, and we will be asking the budgetary authority to approve them.
Let me also take this opportunity to follow my fellow-Commissioner Mrs Loyola de Palacio in extending very warm thanks to the budgetary authority, and most especially to Parliament. You have been very supportive of the Commission over the past years, and we continue to count on your support, which will enable the new Commission, too, to cope with the demands made upon it, and the tasks it has to perform, as an institution.
For 2005, the Financial Perspective plans a framework of EUR 114 billion, with upper limits for the financial commitments that we are capable of taking on in internal and external policies, as well as in administrative expenditure, that are lower than provided for in the programmes; the reason for this is that prices have needed less adjustment because of exchange rate fluctuations. We will therefore have very little room for manoeuvre next year.
The Secretaries-General of the institutions will, over the coming days, be presenting a report on how we are going to manage with this tight budget. Even though funds for new initiatives, in both the internal and external policy spheres, are very limited, the Commission is nevertheless proposing, for 2005, new initiatives and increased resources in line with our priorities, for example, in transport and energy, for the preparation of a European air traffic management system; in the area of industrial policy, for the establishment of agency for the testing of chemical substances; in justice and internal affairs, for the further development of the Schengen Information System, whilst, in the field of research, there is a need for more funding for the decontamination of nuclear research facilities. Those are just a few examples.
In foreign policy, we need to do what we have undertaken to do in the various areas – our commitments to combat Aids, action measures in Kosovo, and cooperation with non-governmental organisations in strengthening democracy. We are at present reckoning on a financial commitment to Iraq still being needed in 2005, so we will again have to have recourse to the flexibility instrument if we are to be able to perform the tasks that the European Union has taken on.
As the Vice-President has already explained, the discussions on the 2005 Budget will relate to all institutions in the new framework or with changes in their composition. It will be a new experience for the Council to adopt a Budget for 25 Member States. Although there will be a newly-elected Parliament as early as first reading, it is a very good thing that, in the person of Mr Garriga Polledo, we have appointed a principal rapporteur who is very experienced and who will ensure continuity in the debates.
There will be a change of Commission between the first and second readings of the 2005 Budget. In purely institutional terms, we will see many new faces in the 2005 Budget procedure. On 16 March, we will be having a trialogue to discuss the priorities for the 2005 Budget, and I am confident that we – having succeeded in doing so in earlier years – will be able without delay to come to an agreement about them, so that the European Budget for 2005 can, once more, be a good one."@en1
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