Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-04-Speech-4-036"
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"en.20000504.3.4-036"2
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"Mr President, Mr Laschet has produced an excellent report on a very technical subject, going into great detail and discovering certain features connected with the subject which have been discussed during this debate. For this reason, I would like to congratulate him on his splendid work. Parliament is considering a proposal for a Council Regulation on a basis for financing the UN operation in Kosovo, UNMIK, and the costs of the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The intention is to transfer these appropriations from the common foreign and security policy in the second pillar to the first pillar, to be financed from the Commission’s budget.
Although this would appear to be a purely technical measure, there are certain problems associated with it. The first concerns Category 4. Category 4 is already overloaded. For this reason, the Commission proposed yesterday that the financial perspective be revised and that there should be substantial use of agricultural appropriations for external action. This transfer will bring with it a considerable need for additional financing in Category 4.
Another problem concerns competence. If the proposal for a regulation were to be adopted without amendment, it would mean that there would be a syphon for transferring second pillar funds to the first pillar in Category 4, without consulting Parliament. For this reason, the regulation must be amended so that Parliament may maintain its power of influence. This syphon has to be blocked, so the annex to the proposal should be deleted and the amendments the Committee on Budgets is proposing should be adopted. The proposal should therefore be restricted at this stage of the proceedings to just two situations: financing the UN operation in Kosovo and the costs of the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Thirdly, if the funding of special envoys is transferred in future to the Council’s administration budget, as is supposed, it will mean that the gentlemen’s agreement between the Council and Parliament will have to be reviewed. Under this agreement, the Council and Parliament do not interfere with the content of each other’s budget. If, however, what are clearly operational appropriations, such as those for financing the work of special envoys, are transferred to the Council’s budget, they will no longer be serving to fund the Council’s administrative expenses, but rather providing common financing of the work of the European Union. For this reason, these funds can no longer fall within the scope of the gentlemen’s agreement: the European Parliament must have the right to express its opinion and to influence the use of appropriations for financing the work of special envoys, even though they may have been included in the Council’s administrative budget.
The proposal for a Regulation may, as far as I can see, be adopted only if the Commission, and the Council too, accept Parliament’s amendments, since, otherwise, the proposal will go against the present interinstitutional agreement."@en1
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