Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-217"
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"en.20071211.35.2-217"2
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"Congratulations to everyone. I would like to remind you that during the presentation of the draft general budget 2008, the European Commission allocated the biggest share of expenditure to investments in the development of economic growth. This is an unprecedented case in European financial history, when finances allocated to the development of economic competitiveness constitute the biggest share of the budget.
The Commission is committed to implementing progressively the results of the ongoing assessment of the number of activities identified in the screening. We are moving on a step-by-step approach. We have started working on the communication activities, the delegation network, the balance and the category structure of the Commission’s establishment plan. This we promised, and we will deliver.
We hope that Parliament will take into account our commitments and our capabilities to deliver in this matter and, during the vote on Thursday, will reconsider its proposals.
I would like to finish by thanking the European Parliament, especially the Chair of the Committee on Budgets, Mr Böge, and the budget rapporteur, Mr Virrankoski, as well as the Council, especially Mr Santos, for their very efficient cooperation and their constructive role. I do hope that today’s discussions will prove useful and fruitful and that they will contribute to the results of the vote on the European Union’s budget for 2008.
This is a new, historic quality of the EU budget and it reflects the EU’s political priorities – competitiveness, economic growth, cohesion and social harmony.
A significant element in negotiations on the 2008 budget was the need to make a decision on two innovative trans-European projects – the GALILEO project and the development of the European Institute of Technology.
The budget negotiations have been really complicated. However, the constructive position taken by both the European Parliament and the Commission have enabled positive results to be achieved.
I would like to thank the European Parliament and especially the budget rapporteur, Mr Virrankoski, for having considered the Commission’s explanations regarding certain reserves. At first reading these reserves for appropriations were lifted. However, I would like to point out that there still are several outstanding problems that the Commission has drawn Parliament’s attention to.
However, there are still some reserves that will make budget implementation more difficult and complex, and I hope that they can be lifted as early as possible.
Two reserves are a specific source of our concerns, and I would like to draw the attention of the plenary to them. One reserve reduces by EUR 17 million the preparation for staff salaries at headquarters in the policy area of external actions, and that would force the Commission to leave posts vacant and to block recruitment from the beginning of January. This means, in fact, that there would be EUR 22 million in the combined reserve on staff salaries, and I really hope that Parliament will be able to reconsider its position on this in the plenary session.
As regards the general reserve for EUR 5 million on staff salaries, the Commission is firmly committed to delivering the required study on the ABM implementation and the reports requested by Parliament on the follow-up or the screening exercise and on the implementation of Article 44 of the Interinstitutional Agreement.
However, regarding the requested action plan on the reorganisation of the coordination and support activities, I want to be very clear on behalf of the Commission. The European Parliament will be fully informed of all different steps in the follow-up to the screening exercise. On this we can give you the Commission’s commitment. However, I also want to stress that the Commission cannot launch a major reorganisation exercise during the last year of this Commission and, therefore, there will be no action plan in this regard. Major organisation can only be decided by the next Commission."@en1
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