Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-275"
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"en.20081022.21.3-275"2
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"Madam President, I am very happy to see how quickly and efficiently Parliament has finalised its first reading and that it is ready to vote tomorrow. This huge job was done by the Committee on Budgets, by their leaders and coordinators and, of course, by the political groups. This largest portion of the job to be done forms the basis for our future negotiations. We will be starting serious engagement between the two arms of the Budgetary Authority and the Commission in the next two months.
To sum up, the Commission will analyse in detail each amendment adopted by Parliament and will give its reactions in early November through the ‘letter on executability’ – as it does every year – explaining all the necessary details. Before the conciliation in November, and before the second reading, we will try to solve as far as possible anything that we still consider to be a problem in the first reading.
As usual, the Commission will try to be the honest broker between the two budgetary authorities, especially in negotiating the problems which arise in Heading 4, in Heading 5 and in the total ceilings of payment appropriations in the budget. We will try to be helpful by seeking favourable conditions and a good budget for the whole of Europe, especially in these difficult times that we are facing together.
The Commission in general very much appreciates and shares the political priorities for which the European Parliament proposes budget reinforcement and restorations. Regarding payments, the European Parliament intends to approve the level of appropriations up to the ceiling. However, this is not convincing enough for us, because we think that the preliminary draft budget corresponds better to the actual absorption capacity, notably in Member States. I will this week send out the information on the execution of the budget, and you will see that our calculations are based on very serious grounds.
The Commission is largely in agreement with the new process on the pilot projects and preparatory actions proposed by Parliament. On this occasion I would like to stress my appreciation for the excellent collaboration between our institutions, which is thanks to a new and successful approach promoted by the general rapporteur, Mrs Haug. This is the first time in our history of negotiations that we have already been able, before the summer, to receive and agree on the broad scope of these pilot projects.
I would also like to draw attention to a number of issues which still, at first reading, give rise to serious concerns for the Commission.
The first and most important concerns Heading 5. We appreciate that Parliament has restored the amounts requested by the Commission for staff salaries. However, at the same time, EUR 37 million have been put in the reserve, subject to certain conditions for its release.
On top of that, an additional reserve of some EUR 16 million for two specific policy areas, namely transport and environment, has also been reserved. It will, of course, be very difficult for the Commission to respond to this, especially the last one, because there is only one employer in the Commission – namely the Commission – and it is not possible, for example, to stop payments for one or two DGs and continue to pay the others.
These reserves – in total about EUR 50 million – would stop the recruitment of 250 posts received for enlargement and prevent the replacement of retiring staff as from next January. But of course we understand that our negotiating and explanatory skills will come into play with your people as soon as possible after the first reading. We will try to give all the necessary explanations and to fulfil all the conditions set on these reserves.
Regarding the administrative support for operational programmes, this year Parliament has followed the Council and confirmed the cuts. I understand that additional technical explanations will be needed, and we will try to solve this via negotiations about these lines in general.
Another problem we see is that Parliament has not restored the appropriations requested for publication of procurement notices. This, we think, undermines the Commission’s ability to meet its obligations stemming from the public procurement directives, especially in the current environment. We are solving and trying to solve state aid and other problems in Member States in this fluctuating economic situation, and this can place the Commission at risk of legal challenge in the courts."@en1
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