Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-11-Speech-2-515-000"
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"en.20120911.36.2-515-000"2
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"Mr President, the Commission has already, on several occasions, clearly expressed its concerns concerning the reading in the Council of the budget proposed for 2013.
This was on the occasion of the trialogue on 9 July and in President Barroso’s letter to the Heads of State, as the Council’s reading does not comply with, or even contradicts, the conclusions of the summit of European leaders on the so-called Compact for Growth and Jobs. I can quote from the conclusions at the end of June where the leaders of the 27 States agreed that the European Union’s budget must be a catalyst for growth and jobs across Europe. I think that what the Commission proposed for the last year of the present financial perspective, namely 2013, complied with the logic of this decision by the Heads of State. We were pushing down commitments but in such a way that, through savings in many areas, we are able to increase headings for growth and jobs.
But the main battle, as usual, is about payments. It will come as no surprise to learn that we have not much choice left at the end of the financial perspective. The programmes are gaining maturity and there are growing needs and concerns as to investment capacity in many Member States of the European Union. The budget for 2011 was already too low – by EUR 5 billion at least – which did not allow us to reimburse the Ministers of 27 States. This does not help fiscal consolidation in the Member States and increases the so-called outstanding commitments or RALs.
We were proposing an increase of 6.8% but this was in the areas of growth, competitiveness and jobs. I think that the measure of whether we are right or not is the development this year. I can inform you that, at this moment in time, our implementation is EUR 9 billion higher than last year and last year there was already a shortage of money for reimbursements.
We have now completely exhausted the Social Fund and the Fund for Competitiveness and Employment, which is mainly for more developed regions of Europe. That indicates that we were right to increase our requests for payments for the last year of the financial perspective, especially in the areas that are really contributing to competitiveness, growth and jobs.
Therefore, I have to say once more that I am disappointed with the Council’s reading, which cuts both commitments and payments, the latter by EUR 5 billion. Where are the most severe cuts? The biggest cuts are in Heading 1a. What is the name of this heading? Heading 1a is Competitiveness for Growth and Employment, but this also covers cohesion. As regards cohesion, there is an assumption in the Council’s reading about debt commitments and reimbursements – made too late – to the Member States. This is also about our solidarity vis-à-vis our partners worldwide. There is also the question of administrative restraint. This should go as far as possible but cannot be detrimental to the efficiency of the administration which is entrusted with much bigger tasks now than previously.
Therefore, we should rather concentrate on how to realistically establish the required level of payments for the last year of the present financial perspective. I am really grateful to the Members of Parliament, including Alain Lamassoure, for the initiative to discuss the criteria and the points of reference in order to have a decent level of payments, not one that is exaggerated, but one which allows reimbursement of the money that is really needed.
We need goodwill in these final weeks before the conciliation. We need to understand what the financial perspective is about. We should be serious about the growth and jobs compact decided on by the Member States. Therefore, I still trust that we can manage this."@en1
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