Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-14-Speech-2-167"
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"en.20041214.12.2-167"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner Grybauskaitė, Mr Nicolaï, ladies and gentlemen, we may, today, be discussing the agreement with the Council about the 2005 Budget, but we are, of course, already looking to see how things will progress with the 2006 Budget and what is to be expected in the coming years in relation to the Financial Perspective for 2007-2013.
So I will tell you in plain language that my political evaluation of the result we have achieved for 2005 makes me both laugh and cry. What I see as positive is the flexibility instrument. I would like to say here and now that I agree with Mr Böge, who made it very clear that we have succeeded in making these funds available now – not only for internal policy and the agencies, but also for foreign policy, above all for supporting the elections in Iraq. That is a success, and it was one that we in this House saw as urgently necessary if we were to be equal to all the tasks set us.
I see it as indispensable that we were able to uphold as part of the Lisbon strategy our priority of upgrading information policy, enabling us better to reach the citizens and voters in Europe. We Greens also see it as important progress that the LIFE programme and the programme for the protection of the environment have been prevented from falling by the wayside.
I would, however, like to say with equal clarity that what I see in a negative light is the shape taken by the payments for 2005. We do, admittedly, conclude that this round of negotiations did not offer more room for manoeuvre; that is why we will vote in favour of this Budget. I am right behind Mr Ferber in his criticisms of the Council and in his statement describing the 1% criterion as misguided fetishism on the part of the Council. I want to make that very plain to you, as I was very pleased to hear him say this and it does not often happen that Mr Ferber and I are of one mind.
The fact is that I do believe – and here I am addressing you, Mr Nicolaï – that you stated, not only in the course of our negotiations during the conciliation procedure, but also in this House today, that this House, in exactly the same way as the national governments, must be willing to decide on priorities. That is indeed so. My fellow MEPs have also already said that we all have a great interest in budgetary discipline and a serious approach to the Budget. In the same way, though, you cannot evade our question, for if we have to set priorities, the same must also be said of the national governments. Your belief that you have to make unilateral cuts in which European policy loses out I regard as the wrong approach. Politics risks being renationalised, and, for an enlarged Europe – for, for the first time, we are dealing with a Budget for 25 Member States – with new tasks and new challenges, that would be a mistake. If you want to fashion a truly European policy, you have to have the political courage to make the Budget reflect that. I do not at present see that in the position of the net contributing countries and in the obsession with 1%. That I regard as a mistake in political terms. If we want to join together in further developing our wonderful continent, if we want to do more for economic renewal, for spending on education, youth and new talents, then jointly, and together with you, the Council and the net contributor countries – and this is where I am critical of the red/green government in Germany – we must get moving in order to achieve more for Europe’s benefit.
Let me express, by way of conclusion, my gratitude to all the staff and members of the Committee on Budgets. I hope that we will continue to work together with such powerful effect over the years to come in order to achieve much for Europe."@en1
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