Brussels, 08/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 7 September, Melchior Wathelet, on behalf of the Belgian Presidency, gave a brief presentation at the European Parliament of the draft general budget for 2011, which was adopted on 12 October, in written procedure and by qualified majority (for the details and the figures, see EUROPE 10182 and 10199). A proper debate has not yet taken place, with the only contributions being from the Parliament's rapporteurs. The debate will take place at the session from 18 to 22 October; the conciliation will open on 25 October and continue until 15 November.
I am aware that the Parliament regrets the absence of a political discussion on the priorities of this budget, said Melchior Wathelet at the start of his presentation, but, he went on, this budget responds to the clear political orientations which were defined in March 2010 and follows a number of principles: respect for the financial perspectives, good financial management, keeping sufficient margin in place. Wathelet also stressed that, in spite of the cuts from the proposals of the Commission, the total amounts in commitments and in payments “increase considerably in absolute value and in percentage terms”. The Council is aware that the Parliament is deeply committed to funds for youth, and for those under heading 4, which give the Union the ability to react to political, economic and social challenges on an international scale. As regards administrative expenditure, whilst it makes no changes to the Parliament's requests for its own functioning, the Council points out that each institution must show rigour. In order to guarantee the success of the 2020 strategy, Wathelet concluded, the institutions should already be launching reflections on the architecture of their functioning budgets.
At the last trialogue “we didn't agree on much”, said Janusz Lewandowski, speaking on behalf of the European Commission, but at least we set a timetable. In the months to come, we will not just have to agree on the budget, the commissioner said, but also on a whole raft of “adjustments” which will be needed to ensure the application of the Lisbon Treaty, which will include an exercise in goodwill on everybody's part. Basically, the Commission is proposing that the payment appropriations be concentrated in the competitiveness and employment chapter, to aid economic recovery: it is a kind of “small anti-crisis budget”, Lewandowski explained. As for administrative expenditure, the commissioner set the tone: “I am not going to be very popular with my colleagues”, he said, because I am going to ask you all to tighten your belts.
The rapporteur on the general budget, Elzbieta Jedrzejewska (EPP, Poland), lamented the fact that seven delegations (Austria, UK, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Sweden) had voted against the Council's position: they are only bothered about saving money and reducing their contributions to the European budget without any thought for the consequences, she said. A further cause for regret is that the Council has not provided enough explanations for the reduction of several budget lines, whereas the Parliament would like to know the reasons behind certain decisions.
The German Green Helga Trüpel, rapporteur on the budget for the Parliament and the other institutions, acknowledged that the indebtedness of the states makes a policy of austerity necessary, but thinks that this policy will have to be abandoned sooner or later, due to reasons of social justice and of justice between the generations. These debts which are “strangling” the Union were not contracted by the Union (which does not have the legal capacity to do so), but by the member states, Trüpel pointed out. She also questioned the costs of enlargement. The money is reduced by the Council, but the dates have not been changed: is there not a contradiction in these decisions? (L.G./transl.fl)