Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-14-Speech-2-171"
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"en.20041214.12.2-171"2
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"(SK) Thank you. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to pick up on my colleague Mr Roszkowski’s words and present a few facts and figures. For the year 2005 the Commission has come up with a draft level of payments of EUR 109 billion, in its first reading the Council has come up with EUR 105 billion, and Parliament has calculated payments at EUR 111 billion. This creates an impression of competent activity. In the second round the Council has come to us with a draft level of payments again at EUR 105.3 billion while Parliament proposes EUR 106.3 billion, which is about 5 billion less than in the first round. It is totally obvious who is taking the lead in this game of budgetary ping-pong, but it is also clear that the budgetary procedures are still not precisely defined.
If the proposed level of payments is passed by Parliament it will represent an increase of 6.5% compared to 2004. In comparison with the projected level of inflation in the Eurozone, this is a modest rise, but when set alongside the need to finance the political goals and priorities of the European Union there seem to be fewer reasons for optimism. As long as the quality criterion for the budgetary process of the European Union is the bringing together of the levels of contributions and payments, it is rather a reason for pessimism. A couple of days ago, the European Parliament approved the annual report of the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2003. In the parliamentary discussion about this report there was agreement about one of the key conclusions, namely that the draw-down level of credit payments or the implementation of the payments was rather low and for a long period has hovered between 80 and 90%. In this respect the draft budget for the year 2005 does not bring any turnaround as it suggests an implementation level for payments of 90%. As far as the structural funds are concerned, the levers for implementing budgetary resources in the form of the payments are in the hands of the governments of the EU Member States. It is therefore an important role of Parliament to use its political instruments and to gain the support of the media in exerting appropriate pressure on the governments and the Council in order to make fuller and more effective use of the disposable resources to finance the common policies of the European Union. If this does not happen, the parliamentary budgetary procedure will continue to be more a test of the loyality of Members of the European Parliament to the governments of their home countries rather than a test of the effectiveness and competitiveness of the budgetary process and the use of European Union resources. Thank you."@en1
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