Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-11-21-Speech-3-312-000"
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"en.20121121.23.3-312-000"2
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"Mr President, we very much regret that the Conciliation Committee which was convened after the European Parliament’s last plenary session in October 2012 was not able to reach agreement on a joint text on the 2013 budget within the 21-day period foreseen by the Treaty.
The Cyprus Presidency did its utmost to achieve a positive outcome within the given timeframe. We worked hard to try to reconcile positions right up to the last few hours. But in the end we had to accept that the views of our two institutions remained far apart, and that it was therefore unfortunately not possible to reach an agreement.
The Council believes that it showed considerable openness throughout the negotiations, and in particular during the last few days of the conciliation period. It was able to make some progress, and specifically was able to approve one of the key elements of the negotiation package – the draft amending budget No 5 for 2012 related to the mobilisation of EUR 670 million from the EU Solidarity Fund in support of Italy – without any modifications to the Commission’s proposal. Despite this, we were not able to find the necessary flexibility in each of our institutions needed to make further progress on the 2013 budget.
The mandate given to the Conciliation Committee was to find an agreement on the 2013 budget. However, it proved impossible to find a way forward on this issue without having addressed first the issue of the draft amending budget No 6 for 2012, which seeks EUR 9 billion in additional payment appropriations for this year. Ms Gardiazábal Rubial is right that Erasmus and globalisation are part of draft amending budget No 6 and we understand and appreciate the sense of urgency.
The Council was and is ready to discuss all elements of the budgetary package and is committed to honouring our payment obligations, but we continue to take the view that they cannot be dealt with in isolation from each other if we are to find a balanced outcome which will meet the concerns of all parties. This was in fact the hiatus between our respective positions. For us, there is an inescapable link between draft amending budget No 6 for 2012 and the 2013 budget, since both of them aim at ensuring the continuity of the same European Union programmes and actions, and both of them have to be financed from the same contributions from the Member States. Of course, having said that, it has to be very clear that we fully honour and respect the rights and prerogatives of Parliament and the essence and the nature of the budgetary procedure (i.e., colegislation, codecision); there is even an edge in your favour under some specific circumstances.
We now have only a few weeks left until the end of this year. We now of course await, as was said, a new draft budget from the Commission which will need to take due account of the progress we have made to date in reconciling the different positions of our two institutions.
Clearly, I would have preferred to have been in a different situation to that which we find ourselves in today. But I remain hopeful that we can still reach a positive outcome in the short time that is left to us.
The Cyprus Presidency will do its utmost to make rapid progress on the basis of the new draft budget. We count on Parliament’s willingness to engage in a constructive dialogue so that we can have an EU budget in place from the beginning of the year.
I am convinced that our collective credibility would be at stake if we failed to deliver this time round. It would simply not be understood if we were unable to reach agreement given what is at stake. But I am convinced that we can overcome the difficulties and reach a compromise. The Cyprus Presidency – and I personally – am committed to delivering a successful outcome."@en1
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