Speech from Mr James Elles,
Vice-Chairman of the EPP-ED Group,
in the European Parliament
on Tuesday, 22 October 2002

2003 budgetary procedure


President, Commissioner, Colleagues,

"I would like to join with those who have already said in this debate many thanks to our duo, Mr Färm and Mr Stenmarck, for the excellent work they have done on behalf of the Parliament during this special procedure.

"They have both outlined that we are thinking about now a Union which will be extended to at least 25 countries. The enlargement is the main emphasis of this budget for both Parliament and Commission. I would like to express a personal view, that I hope that we in the future will avoid too many referendums, too many votes being taken on particular subjects. It might become contagious in this House, where we have come to a resolution and then we might have to vote again, because we came to the wrong of conclusion.

"I would like to refer to the Parliament budget and the Commission budget. In the terms of our Group, we had strategies for both of these, and these have by large being implemented as we reach this stage in the budget procedure. In the terms of the Parliament budget, we would very much like to emphasise the need for an extended freelance in terms of translation, because this is going to be an important factor in the years ahead. We welcome the fact that the early retirement has been extended to political groups, and thank the Council for that even though they happen to be absent from this debate this afternoon. We would like to see that the Council in the future would have full transparency and that all its legislative discussions would be open to the public.

"These are themes which I think our group maintains. On the Commission budget, we have four points of relevance. Firstly, when referring to the payments and backlog, we would very much like to see real efforts made in reducing the Euro 110 billion commitments, we are asking as in the resolution now, that there will be a report of the Commission as how they are going to achieve this particular objective of eliminating outstanding commitments.

"Secondly in terms of internal policies, we are still looking for better value for money. We are looking for some money for information policy to be retained in reserve because we would like to have savings in administrative and human resources. We expect a report from the Commission on this subject by the 30th April 2003.

"Thirdly in external policies, we would like there to be an improved accountability, and therefore supporting the appeal by our rapporteur, that we should have more information relating to the proposed interinstitutional agreements between Council, Parliament, and Commission in the expenditure of money and foreign security policy. We would like to know what kind of expenditures the Council is expecting over the next five years, because we also agree with the rapporteur, that it is unhealthy to think that the Council is going to be involved in large expenditure of funds, which would be out with the normal accountability and the use of such funds. Equally we are asking the Commission to come forward with some form of thought process, to think through what kind of priorities we have for foreign and security policy priorities in the future.

"Lastly, I think my Group would like me to say, that we do want to see, that this reform process, when we come to category five the question of the way in which this whole reform process is being done. We are convinced that progress is being made, but we are not yet convinced that this whole programme of reform is going to be implemented. We would like to know, that you are out there selling it to the general public. That these reforms will be completed by the end of next year, as the most recent document has said from the Commission. We would very much like to see, before we approve the new posts, that the reform elements are in place, and that you are convinced that this whole reform process will actually be completed. If we get to the end of the year or the end of this particular mandate of the Commission and Parliament, without these reforms being completed, then we will be in breach of the commitments which we have made to our electorate to make sure that there are real reforms of the Institutions in place."