Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-23-Speech-1-146"
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"en.20091123.20.1-146"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as this is the first time that I have spoken in front of a plenary sitting of the European Parliament, permit me to greet you all and express my pleasure, enthusiasm and sense of dedication at participating in this assembly, which represents all European citizens.
In view of this, considering the factual circumstances and the strategic importance of these two countries within the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy, I urge all present to approve these two proposals for macro-financial assistance without amendments, as advised by the Commission.
As for the task that has brought me here, I am to present before you today two reports on the allocation of macro-financial assistance to Georgia and Armenia, which are aimed at alleviating the fiscal problems and external accounts of both these Caucasian countries. Both of these countries are our partners under the European Neighbourhood Policy, and have been severely hit by the global economic and financial crisis of the last two years.
In the case of Georgia, the impact of the crisis has been exacerbated by the direct and indirect consequences of the military conflict that occurred last year with Russia, including a large number of people who were displaced within the country.
The economy of neighbouring Armenia has also been affected by the combination of the economic recession and, in particular, the rapid deterioration of the Russian economy, due to the great dependence of the Armenian economy on trade with its large neighbour to the north. This pushed these two countries towards a very difficult economic, financial and social situation.
The two proposals for exceptional financial assistance that we are discussing today will reduce the budgetary deficit and have an immediate positive impact on the public finance and the balance of payments of Georgia and Armenia, provided that they are implemented with immediate effect. For this reason, our two reports fully support the need to secure this financial assistance for Georgia and Armenia.
Moreover, in my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on International Trade, I proposed to my colleagues on the Committee that they approve these two proposals without amendments, under the simplified procedure, and the proposal was approved unanimously.
However, in the reports which we presented before the plenary, we registered a complaint about the delay and the short time which the Commission granted us to discuss these agreements. In the future, we will consider such delays unacceptable, although we acknowledge the inevitability of swifter processing for these types of issues, given their exceptional nature.
Our position on this matter does not mean that my colleagues or I do not have our reservations and concerns about the proposed agreements themselves. It is, moreover, likely that some of us, had we had the choice, would have taken the opportunity to table amendments, emphasising, for example, the importance of certain conditions and criteria relating to the assistance in order to improve the transparency of its content and implementation.
Yet this would have meant – I am on the point of concluding, Madam President – that we would not have managed to approve these agreements on the two countries."@en1
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