Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-12-Speech-1-062-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20111212.14.1-062-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a majority of this House wants to give ITER, the international nuclear fusion project, a chance. This international project is led by the European Union, and Council has granted it EUR 6.5 billion up to 2020 as the EU’s contribution – representing 45% of the total funding. This EUR 6.5 billion includes additional financing needs of EUR 1.3 billion, and that is what we are concerned with now. I must state that I hope that ITER will now continue with improved project management. At the same time, however, this House insists that other priorities in research and innovation are not sacrificed as a result of the additional financing needs of ITER.
Over the past year we have not succeeded in finding a solution, in reaching a compromise on the additional financing needs. We have quite rightly separated the 2012 budget procedure from the resolution of the ITER question. In the second round the trialogue reached a conclusion, which was firstly to take EUR 100 million from ITER’s budget lines in the 2012 budget and secondly to revise the ceiling for Heading 1a upward by a total of EUR 840 million in 2012 and 2013, and in return to decrease Headings 2 and 5 by the same amount. That is relatively uncontroversial.
After significant struggles we then agreed on the following wording: that a third tranche of EUR 360 million should come from transfers to be made in the 2013 budget within the ceilings of the financial framework. The text of the trialogue conclusions states that this allows all the options open to us under the Financial Regulation and the Interinstitutional Agreement, without requiring a revision.
So far, so good. The Committee on Budgets approved the trialogue conclusions by a large majority. Unfortunately, I have to report that at yesterday’s decision by the Permanent Representatives Committee, six Member States – Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom – then added that they regret that it is not specified where the funding for 2013 is to come from. Let me quote in English:
‘With regard to the draft budget 2013, the Commission is therefore asked to determine the required appropriations for ITER without using the negative reserve, the flexibility instrument or margins’.
This is a highly provocative statement. It is not a clever statement; it is politically stupid and brash. It amounts to nothing less than a pre-emptive blocking minority in the Council which breaks and destroys both the spirit and the substance of the compromise reached right at the outset. We had not banked on that. We will have to talk about it again immediately after the debate in the Committee on Budgets.
I would recommend to the groups in this House that we vote in favour of the report on the revision – that we stick to the agreement. At the same time, however, I would say that we are only in a position to guarantee the EUR 360 million for 2013 if, as regards the draft budget for 2013, the Commission acts strictly on the basis of the trialogue conclusions and does not eagerly go along with this blocking minority in the Council. We can only guarantee the EUR 360 million if the Council is willing and able to act on the basis of the trialogue conclusions, making full use of the provisions laid down in the Financial Regulation and in the IIA. Parliament needs to nail its colours to the mast. We must put an end once and for all to the way in which some parts of Council treat Parliament and are not prepared to conduct substantive and budgetary discussions. That is why Parliament must make a stand tomorrow."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples