Brussels, 10/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The German Social Democrat Jutta Haug has congratulated the European Commission for having already adopted a "road map" for the work on the financial perspective in the EU post 2006 (see EUROPE of 5 March, p.9, and of 6 March, p.8). At the same time, she requested the European Parliament's full participation in this exercise, so that "the results are available early enough for the parliamentary procedures of position-taking and codecision". Ms Haug particularly welcomes the Commission's suggestion that the duration of financial perspectives should in future coincide with that of the European Parliament's mandate. This, she pointed out, is proposed in the report to be debated next week in plenary on budgetary procedure reform, in the context of the revision of the Treaty currently underway (the report by the President of the Committee on Budgets, Terence Wynn, is on the agenda for next Tuesday in Strasbourg).
Jutta Haug also asked for the exercise also to cover basic issues, such as Union resources (on which she was the EP rapporteur). The European Commission has already put forward its ideas on this subject in its "Penelope" document, stated the MEP, adding: "The Commission must not back-pedal (…) I expect its ideas to be reflected in the proposals it announces".