Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-22-Speech-1-049-000"
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"en.20121022.19.1-049-000"2
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"Mr President, sincere thanks to the rapporteur and shadow rapporteur. They have done a very good job at an extremely difficult time. Very few citizens are aware that there is a trend for the EU budget actually to fall as a proportion of the Member States’ economies. Most people believe that it is merely growing and growing. That is not true. It is falling despite the EU having gained new tasks and new Member States.
Despite this, the European Parliament, in view of the economic crisis, is very cautious about 2013. Our proposal largely means a freeze in terms of new budget commitments. The reason why we nevertheless do not accept a cut in the budget is that we feel that it might worsen the crisis. The budget in fact consists of job-creating and growth-creating investments with a redistribution profile marked by solidarity to the benefit of the most vulnerable countries, regions, young unemployed and so on. In many of these countries, there would be no job-creating investments without EU support.
The most controversial issue appears to be the payment appropriations. This ought to be a technical issue. It ought to be self-evident that budget decisions that are taken must be implemented, that contracts must be paid for, that exchange students must receive remuneration and so on. It is simply not acceptable that important programmes such as Erasmus and the Social Fund are now finding it difficult to carry out their activities.
Our assessment is that the Commission’s proposals for payment appropriations for next year are not excessive but are exactly what is needed. It is very good that Mr Lewandowski, Member of the Commission, has now started talking seriously.
Finally, a few words about Parliament’s own budget. The Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament has, for several years, advocated savings without jeopardising parliamentary work. We are now continuing with this line. We are in agreement on a rate of increase of 1.9 %, including the costs of Croatian accession. There is, in fact, a real slimming-down of the budget.
Finally, we would really need to make progress on the issue of Parliament’s seat in Strasbourg. The Committee on Budgets has now, partly on my suggestion, by a large majority adopted a more detailed proposal than previously, which requires a ‘roadmap’, an action plan, in order to tackle the issue in practice. There are ways of resolving this with respect for history, without harming the city of Strasbourg and its citizens. In the longer term, it is unreasonable to adopt a solution that results in high costs every year and, in addition, is a heavy burden both on the environment and on working conditions in Parliament."@en1
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