Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-276"
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"en.20081022.21.3-276"2
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"Madam President, Mrs Grybauskaitė, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to apologise for the absence of Mr Woerth, who has been held up in Paris in a good cause, since in France, too, it is budget season and time to present the finance bill to Parliament within the framework of the first public finance programming bill. I am aware, having discussed this with Mr Böge too, how important this debate is in Parliament, and also how important it is for the French Presidency. I would therefore also like to thank my assistants and those of the Council and of Mr Woerth who have helped me prepare for this important debate.
The third issue concerns financing of the food facility. This will clearly be an important element in discussions within the Council over the coming weeks. The European Council of June this year provided a strong political boost by congratulating the Commission on its wish to present its proposal, but the Council’s mandate is crystal clear: we have to find a funding solution which fully complies with the current Financial Perspective. I am aware that Parliament shares this view but, nevertheless, the Council is endeavouring to find every appropriate financing arrangement so that we can give practical effect to the political wishes that have been expressed, including by the Heads of State or Government, and by the European Commission.
What I meant to say – to avoid what I said being put down to a translation error – is that I am aware that Parliament does not share this view. I made a mistake, a slip of the tongue of course. I wish, however, to also mention that there were points of convergence between Parliament and the Council on this important issue of the food facility, particularly regarding the fact that we both had reservations over the Commission’s proposal to fund the whole of this facility from margins under the Heading 2 ceiling.
Clearly we must – and the Council is aware of this – aim for an optimum combination of funding sources so that agreement on the overall amount proposed by the Commission can be reached, within the framework of the Council, during conciliation in November. I am convinced that the three institutions will make every effort to secure a comprehensive agreement on the 2009 budget, on the financing of the new initiatives I have just mentioned, during conciliation in November. This agreement must be the best possible compromise for the Union, its citizens and its institutions.
A brief word on the regulation implementing decisions on own resources, which Parliament will be deciding on during this session. I wanted to thank, both personally and on behalf of the Council, Alain Lamassoure for his report, along with this House for its diligence and speed in dealing with this question. For our part, we shall not rule out the Commission’s proposal. Ratification of the decision on own resources in the various Member States is going well, and we hope to be in a position to achieve the objective of its full and comprehensive entry into force by 1 January 2009. This is what I wished to tell you.
So far, our work has been carried out in a very positive atmosphere of cooperation, and I can assure you that the Council is prepared to continue this high-quality dialogue with a view to securing an agreement on the 2009 budget that is balanced and satisfactory to all. I listened carefully to the speech of Mrs Haug and that of Mr Lewandowski, which was particularly communication-oriented. In this connection, this very morning we reached a political agreement on the plan concerning the strategy for communication with Parliament and the Commission, and I am delighted to note that, differences aside, we share the same goal, namely we intend to ensure the financing of the European Union’s policy priorities, whether in terms of competitiveness, cohesion or growth.
Obviously, as you and Mrs Grybauskaitė pointed out, in the current international climate, we have to ensure that Europe has the resources to fully play its role in the international sphere. All this must, however, take place in accordance with the financial framework established for the 2007-2013 period.
I would therefore like to briefly mention three issues of particular importance: the first concerns payment appropriations and their amounts; the second concerns the rules of budgetary discipline and sound financial management; and the third concerns the food facility.
As far as payment appropriations are concerned, I will not hide the fact that the Council is seriously concerned by the large number of payment appropriations that the European Parliament intends to vote on at first reading, since this intention goes well beyond the Commission’s initial proposal in its preliminary draft budget. The payment appropriations should be adjusted in line with actual requirements and, in particular, we should draw lessons from the previous budget outturn so as to be able to determine our real ability to implement sectoral policies.
Now, what we have seen since the establishment of the Financial Perspective, which I followed from a different angle for a certain period of time, is that the Community budget has always been subject to an under-utilisation, and this has been the case since 1988. The 2008 Amending Budget should show that once again this year, payment appropriation needs have been greatly overestimated, especially when it comes to a policy as vital as the cohesion policy, and at this point, there is no evidence to suggest that 2009 will be any different.
As mentioned by Mrs Grybauskaitė, and at her behest, improvements have been made in recent years, but uncertainties related to the financial year 2009 remain considerable. On 1 October, out of the 433 programmes of the cohesion policy, there were only two for which interim payments had been made, and you will appreciate that, in the current economic and financial climate – we cannot compare the European Union budget with things that are not comparable in the context of the steps taken to save the financial system for savers and to protect European citizens – we must, above all, uphold the interests of European taxpayers and avoid, as far as possible, entering in the budget any payment appropriations that cannot be utilised.
The second issue is compliance with the rules on budgetary discipline and sound financial management. The Council will take care to implement the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 in full. Expenditure must respect the limits laid down by this Agreement and sufficient margins under the ceilings of the different headings must be maintained. These ceilings, as you know, are not objectives to be met. Their systematic saturation is not acceptable in our view, since this would completely compromise our ability to deal with unforeseen situations which may arise during the 2009 budget year.
In this regard, I would like to briefly mention Heading 4, in relation to which Parliament is about to vote on an amendment which would go far beyond the ceiling of the Financial Perspective. We are well aware of the real tensions surrounding this heading. We need to find a coherent response to the different priorities of the Union in the international arena, and fine tune our level of intervention, particularly under the common foreign and security policy, and we know that, in this area, circumstances can change very quickly. Therefore, here too, we should leave ourselves sufficient margins to tackle any developments in this area, as well as any developments linked to interventions carried out under the CFSP."@en1
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