Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-14-Speech-2-470"
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"en.20101214.36.2-470"2
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"Mr President, Mr Wathelet, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as rapporteur for Parliament’s budget, I can definitely speak of a political success in respect of this part of the budget. Parliament’s position following the vote on the budget in October has been accepted almost in its entirety by the Council. My approach was to tackle this budget with a great deal of responsibility, with ambition commensurate with the Treaty of Lisbon, but also with self-restraint on our part, because, of course, we all understand the difficult situation we are in, but are nevertheless committed Europeans. This was precisely the conflict of aims that we had with Parliament’s budget, as well as with the general part of the budget. The different institutions, in other words, our own House, but also the other small institutions such as the European Data Protection Supervisor, the European Ombudsman and the Court of Auditors, have been given the posts that they desperately need – not as many as they originally asked for, but a number that recognises what they really need. Parliament’s budget – and I think this is important – has been cut by EUR 25 million compared to what the Bureau originally asked for. In other words, this is another clear sign of self-limitation and self-restraint, but not self-denial.
Something else that was particularly important to me was for us to use more resources to make our buildings energy efficient. There should also be more bicycles here in Strasbourg so that we are not reliant on so many cars, and it should be possible to provide the staff of the institutions with cards for local public transport in Brussels. Thus, here, too, it is a question of environmental responsibility. The salaries adjustment in accordance with the court ruling has been properly budgeted for and will be financed by redistribution from other parts of the budget. That means that we have reached a good compromise between Parliament and the Council, and we have cooperated well.
However, I will now, if I may, give you my political assessment of the general budget as budget coordinator for the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. The increase in payments – 2.91% – is a very modest one, and it is a transitional budget at a time of necessary austerity in the Member States. Parliament, however – and I still believe this is an appropriate request – wanted a clear agreement with the Council on how the Treaty of Lisbon, which the Council and Parliament adopted together, of course – after all, we are not opponents on this issue – can actually be implemented. I would like to emphasise once again that Parliament is not going beyond the terms of the Treaty of Lisbon. We are merely demanding observance of the Treaty. However, we are also calling for the Council not to hide behind the results of the Treaty of Lisbon. There is a danger of this in my opinion, and it is something regarding which any self-respecting parliament must express its criticism.
We Greens are not satisfied with what we have achieved up to now. There are a few weak statements, but that is not what we originally wanted. I am of the opinion that if we adopt an ambitious strategy for which there are genuinely good grounds, then we must also stick with it and not give up ahead of time. As Greens, we are pleased that we do not currently have the money for the ITER nuclear fusion reactor, because we do not consider this to be a real priority at this point in time and, from an environmental point of view, we believe that we should spend more money on renewable energies and environmental restructuring, rather than putting it into projects whose success is not assured. However, what we can now undoubtedly see as regards the next year is that the negotiations will continue. I very much hope that, in a pro-European spirit between the Council and Parliament, we will then be more successful together."@en1
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