Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-06-Speech-3-447"
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"en.20090506.41.3-447"2
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"Mr President, participating in the debate this evening is a somewhat special experience. For five years I have been working closely with Catherine Guy-Quint. The two of us have been budget coordinators for our respective political groups. We have had our battles along the way, but most of the time we have fought together in the spirit of cooperation which pervades work in the Committee on Budgets.
You are finishing, Catherine, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you more officially for the time we have spent together. I have learnt a great deal! My French has improved and I have also learnt a lot from your style, which I have come to respect. You are more no-nonsense than I am, but sometimes that is necessary!
This evening the outgoing Parliament is handing over to the new Parliament, which will be elected from 4 to 7 June. If the voters of Ireland vote yes in October and the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force at the end of the year, we will have to act quickly because there are major consequences for Parliament’s work; not least in the area of budgets. This is described well and clearly in Mrs Guy-Quint’s report. You have completed a first class piece of work to hand on to the new members of the European Parliament.
Parliament will be formally involved in establishing the multiannual financial frameworks, but we still have not succeeded in securing a change in this framework period from seven to five years to correspond to the period of office of the Commission and Parliament. This would enable us always to help shape these frameworks. Parliament would have full influence over the entire budget, including the agriculture budget. I believe that it would be good for the farmers and citizens of the EU if the discussions concerning agricultural policy were thereby thoroughly opened up and if the horse trading behind closed doors were replaced by open, democratic debate. No one can say in advance what the result would be for the level of agricultural expenditure, but it would undoubtedly prevent schemes being maintained and developed if they cannot be clearly and logically explained to our citizens.
The annual budget procedure is being changed, and last year we tried out the new requirements made of work in Parliament’s Committee on Budgets. Having only one reading followed by negotiations to reach agreement forces us to prepare earlier and much more carefully. That is not such a silly idea in essence. I feel that last year’s general trial of the new discipline had good results.
The Treaty of Lisbon gives Parliament new budgetary powers and new ways of working and Mrs Guy-Quint’s report provides the forthcoming Parliament with an excellent basis for this work. I hope and believe that we will succeed in getting the Treaty of Lisbon adopted, thereby ensuring that the work of the EU becomes more open and effective."@en1
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