Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-26-Speech-3-046"
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"en.20051026.2.3-046"2
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"Mr President, I also wish to congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Pittella, on his excellent report. It is a radical report, but one to be commended for the timely emphasis it places on achieving the Lisbon goals and the need to improve the structural funds and external actions.
I just want to make four points. Firstly, on information and communication: it is quite clear we need greater focus and direction. Therefore, I welcome Commissioner Wallström’s initiative to regenerate communication tools through the use of plan D, but stress that this will only be a success if adequate resources are made available. Therefore, I call on the Council to do so.
Secondly, the biggest challenge for this year’s budget and for future financing is in heading 4: External actions. Given the number of new regions where the EU has had to intervene recently, combined with the frequency and the destructive enormity of the natural disasters affecting largely poor countries and not least the recent earthquake in Pakistan and India, for which it is essential we increase resources next year, I believe there is a dire need for the Council and the Commission to have a thorough rethink on how these new areas are to be funded and, at the same time, how we are going to meet our obligations in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The situation as regards this heading is further exacerbated by an unwillingness to be more flexible vis-à-vis the sugar regime, where it is very important for us to help poor farmers, but, at the same time, it will add more pressure in heading 4.
Whilst on agriculture, this brings me to my third point. I am extremely pleased that my amendment on reducing tobacco subsidies was adopted in the Committee on Budgets. This is a major step forward in finally putting an end to a hypocrisy within the European Union whereby, on the one hand, we have been funding health programmes warning of the ill effects of tobacco use and, on the other hand, subsidising tobacco production. This totally undermines the credibility of the EU and, adding insult to injury, a vast amount of the tobacco is burnt and destroyed because it is not good enough to be used. Therefore, I am calling on all colleagues to support this particular amendment.
Finally, on Parliament’s budget, I must admit that I am somewhat perplexed by our strategy – or the lack of it – as it really is a shame that ..."@en1
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