Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-20-Speech-3-561"
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"en.20101020.24.3-561"2
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"Mr President, we have a number of financing instruments to deal with today. We have already debated one aspect this morning, but I am going to start by talking about the Instrument for Stability. This instrument was created in 2006 and is the best funded instrument in the areas of the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, conflict prevention, civil post-disaster support, civil peacebuilding measures and also for justice and policing in the anti-terrorism sphere. Despite this, the size of the funding is relatively small. So far, it only amounts to EUR 1.4 billion in the financial perspective. This is not a lot of money, but it is good money, as it can be used relatively flexibly. Consideration has repeatedly been given to cutting this, but so far, we have always managed to ensure that it has not been cut in the budget. What is the mid-term review of this instrument about? What is up for debate? Well, there are a small number of points, but some of them are important in terms of content. First of all, the long-term measures under Article 4(3) are designed to make it possible to put in place measures to promote women in political processes, in particular, with regard to the media. What we are actually talking about here, therefore, is the transfer of an already very successful field into Article 4(3). So far, support has been given for media appearances by Afghan women standing for parliament. We would like to have this incorporated into the long-term measures, rather than only being in the short-term measures, so that these women can continue to be supported in this way over the longer term.
Secondly, we want to see the peacebuilding partnership explicitly mentioned in the directive, not only in order to reward the development of formal dialogue with civil society, but also in order to bring the concept into the new era of the European External Action Service. It should not be allowed to disappear, and we therefore think it is important that it should receive specific mention.
Thirdly, we are voting in favour of the increase in the proportion of funding for long-term measures under Article 4(3) from 5 to 10%. However, I would like to remind the High Representative, once again, that the Committee on Foreign Affairs did endorse this increase at the last minute, as we were promised that, in future, extensive measures would be undertaken under the auspices of the Instrument in the fight against landmines, cluster bombs and leftover stocks of ammunition. In other words, this increase in the long-term measures of 5% of the overall budget line to 10% was agreed on a conditional basis and we expect that you, Baroness Ashton, and the External Action Service will stick to this agreement and that the strategy paper for 2012/2013 will reflect that. This is important to us, in other words. To do otherwise would not be in the spirit of the agreement.
If Parliament and the Commission prevail, however, the biggest innovation in the content of the text in the mid-term review will be the explicit expansion of the remit to include small arms and light weapons (SALWs). At this point, I want to call on the Presidency once again to accept this idea. The European Court of Justice has ruled in favour. I know that it still pains some to accept this, but I hope that, with the External Action Service, we will now perhaps be able to overcome this disjunction between the Council and the Commission and to obtain agreement on how to proceed on the issue of small arms and light weapons. I found this to be a very important point.
My final point concerns the issue of delegated acts. We have already discussed this issue this morning. I believe that we need a political solution in this regard and not a judicial one, which would represent a dead end. One final very brief point: when it comes to the Instrument for Stability and programming in the External Action Service – we are truly convinced that planning and programming must continue to rest with those people who have been responsible for this up to now and that those people must not be downgraded to ‘financial management’ but instead must continue to carry out content planning."@en1
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