Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-22-Speech-1-041-000"
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"en.20121022.19.1-041-000"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, representatives of the Council, tomorrow this plenary session is going to vote on the European Parliament’s position on the 2013 budget, which is likely to receive the backing of a large majority of MEPs. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr La Via, as the rapporteur for this budget, for all his magnificent work.
I would like the Council to know that, for European socialists, this position is the very bottom line, because we are convinced that more can be done. We believe that there is room for manoeuvre within this budget and that there are many European programmes to which more resources can be allocated.
In January, the members of the European Council issued a statement in which they emphasised the need to invest in growth and jobs. In June, at another Council meeting, they decided on a ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’, and yet they have done nothing to put this initiative in train.
We believe that the budget can help to do so, and, to that end, we have submitted amendments aimed at supporting all those programmes which reflect our priorities: SMEs, education, youth, research and innovation through the Seventh Framework Programme, and not forgetting development cooperation.
What measures has the Council put in train? What budgetary measures has it taken to ensure that those programmes come to fruition? None. Not only has it made no proposals, it has even proposed cutting the budget by EUR 1 billion. It is continuing to impose austerity as the sole recipe for tackling the crisis. We told them then that they were wrong, and they didn’t take any notice of us. Unfortunately, events are now proving us correct. They are not calming the markets; macroeconomic data are not improving; deficit figures continue to escalate and, what is worse, citizens are having a very bad time of it and many countries, as a result of that austerity, no longer have a welfare state to help them to survive the crisis.
How long is it going to take you to realise that we need to change course? Members of the Council, you carry on ploughing the same furrow – we saw it here today – not only are you cutting back on your commitments for the coming year, you are also cutting pay, just like you did last year and the year before.
Mr Mavroyiannis, cutting pay means failing to fulfil commitments; it means that you have decided not to pay your bills; it means that many programmes will have to be halted, such as the Erasmus grants; it means that many of our town councils and regions will not receive the money that they have already invested in projects which are financed by European funds. This Parliament is not going to allow that to happen.
Our position on this matter is unwavering and clear: if you fail to allocate the necessary money in order to prevent a recurrence of what is happening this year with regard to pay, Parliament is going to say no to your budget proposal."@en1
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