Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-17-Speech-3-019"
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"en.20060517.3.3-019"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, following difficult negotiations, we are today able to put before you the draft of an interinstitutional agreement on budgetary discipline and sound and sustainable management of the Budget.
I should like to conclude by expressing my deep gratitude to the Commissioner with responsibility for budgets. Following on from what one might term a period of weakness and a Commission position more strongly influenced by the Council, she has come back to making a positive and essential contribution to the final outcome that gives us hope for the future.
All in all, and under the prevailing conditions, the result incorporates important points on which progress has been made for the good of the public and with reform, a modernised budget, and the defence of Parliament’s prerogatives in mind. It is for this reason that I recommend that the House should vote to approve this agreement.
I would like, at the outset, to thank all those in this House who helped make it possible for this result to be achieved, in particular Mr Lewandowski, Mr Walter and Mr Mulder, who made up the negotiating team, along with the groups’ coordinators and staff, with especial thanks to the staff of the Bureau, who have really done a splendid job of work over the past months.
Whatever our differences, this way of working together was and is the strength of this House, in that we feel a sense of obligation to add value to Europe rather than engaging in a one-sided debate about net contributions and the backflow of financial resources. The title of this agreement is a programme in itself, in that the Commission, the Council and Parliament are committing themselves to the framework conditions of the annual budget procedure and of multiannual financial planning until 2013. They are committing themselves to improving the agreement that has been in force up to now and amend the Council decision of December 2005. What that means is that our budget procedures can be more flexible. It means that we can respond better and more quickly to exceptional political, humanitarian and economic circumstances. What we have managed to secure is a reform of the Budget legislation, the simplification of the Budget Regulations, certification of EU programmes and reporting responsibilities for the Member States, more reliable financial planning and clear agreements when new agencies are to be established.
The Commission, the Council and Parliament are also committing themselves to modernising the financial instruments by drawing on the European Investment Bank’s lending facilities. That will be important in terms of research, innovation and small and medium-sized businesses and could create an important leverage effect by boosting investments.
The agreement with the Council in December was also underpinned by what I have no option but to call targeted rebates and Christmas presents. By way of contrast, what we have secured through our negotiations is additional funding for programmes that really do provide added value for Europe, namely programmes for lifelong learning, for the trans-European networks, for research, for social policy, for innovation in the small and medium-sized business sector, for cross-border cooperation, for Natura 2000, for Life +, for health and consumer policies, for culture, youth and media. In foreign and security policy and in the neighbourhood policy, too, we have been able to make substantial improvements.
The whole may well, when added up, be a small amount when set against financial planning overall, but it secures the programmes that matter to the public, that bring added value to Europe and bear our signature, for this House, unlike the Council, was intent upon something more than a debate about 1%. What we wanted to do was to define an across-the-board negotiating position on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the political and economic challenges of an enlarged EU, as documented in the June resolution, with internal and external priorities, modernised budget structures and better-quality budget management.
We have not, by a long way, achieved everything, but we have been able to negotiate a big package and, to some extent, to make cracks in the Council’s concrete structures. Implementing the reforms, in particular, will bring considerable pecuniary benefit to the Union, to the Member States, and to those who have implemented the Community programmes. We have managed to enhance Parliament’s prerogatives as regards all the external policy instruments; Parliament has been accorded an appropriate role in the forthcoming 2008/2009 audit, and it will be possible, on the basis of the Commission's statement on the evaluation of these agreements in 2009, to ensure that the Parliament that will by then be newly elected can have its say.
Some deficits, though, still remain. The Galileo satellite programme is still underfunded, and there are – to say the least – question marks against the decisions on rural development and on voluntary modulation in agriculture policy. Natura 2000 has been left to decay somewhat; work on it and on other projects remains uncompleted, but I would ask our friends in the Council and the Commission to watch their step, for the 8 June 2005 resolution goes on to describe the financial resources and reforms that are – from our point of view – ideally suited to achieving the ambitious objectives of a union of citizens and states, and that is something to which we shall return time and again. We will be very vigilant in ensuring that the letter and spirit of all agreements are complied with.
I wish to express my gratitude to the Austrian Presidency, for our negotiations with it were constructive and fair. The Presidency can certainly not have had an easy job with so many opponents of reform in the Council and in COREPER."@en1
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