Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-05-Speech-2-575-000"
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"en.20110705.37.2-575-000"2
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"Mr President, President of the Commission, I would like to endorse, in some way, but also correct, what Mr Verhofstadt said.
First, as regards own resources, the point must be made that it is others who pay. If you introduce a tax on financial transactions, it is the large financial institutions that pay, and that also completely changes the situation for the citizens. I would like to give you an example that the former Director General of the Energy and Transport Directorate General of the European Commission, Mr Lamoureux, gave me a long time ago: to create own resources, 1% could be levied on all telephone and Internet transactions carried out in the European area, because the European area has enabled large telephone and Internet companies to make profits. If you take 1% of that, you get EUR 20, 30 or 40 billion.
You can calculate what that gives in own resources. It is not just the citizens who are affected, therefore; resources are taken from the profits of large companies or banks and so on, because they benefit from the European Union. It is therefore only natural that they pay some sort of tax to the European Union. Here then is a new tax, which does not affect the average citizen but those who make a lot of profit, as we are now seeing. This is the truth of the matter.
Secondly, concerning your budget, Mr Barroso, I think it is a mistake to say that the EU budget should not be increased. It has to be increased. Baroness Ashton was right when she spoke of a major plan for Egypt and Tunisia and, when we see how things develop, I hope it will include Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Therefore, if we aspire to a more democratic world, a more democratic planet, Europe will have to invest. It is not the Member States that will invest; it will be Europe. Whenever something good happens, the Member States will come to see Mr Barroso. Mr Barroso, you will have a successor one day, you will not always be here, but your successor will be here. As far as I am concerned, I will retire before you, and you will also have to act. I therefore think it is a mistake, today, to want to reduce the budget.
In conclusion, I would like to say that, between own resources and the budget, Mr Barroso, it is clear that own resources must make it possible to reduce national contributions, but not entirely: by a third, yes, but the other two-thirds must be used to increase the budget. I do not agree with own resources being used to reduce national contributions by 100%. Therefore, if you arrive at 60% of own resources, 20 % – a third – should go to the Member States, and the other two-thirds to the budget, which will automatically increase the budget of the European Union.
I believe that, with all the things we have to do for ecological transformation, for democratic transformation, and for the actions of the European Parliament, we need a budget in excess of the 1.05% you propose."@en1
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