03/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of a meeting between the Socialist Group at the European Parliament presided by Enrique Baron and the PES Group at the Committee of the Regions under Michel Delabarre, the two presidents restated their concern for the initiatives of six Member States to freeze the EU budget at 1% of Gross National Product as of 2007. Messrs Baron and Delabarre insisted, on the contrary, in favour of maintaining expenditure at the present figure of 1.24% of EU GNP. They warned: "To reduce this (…) would fly in the face of a cohesion policy which has been reinforced in Article 3 of the draft Constitution". They ask: "How can reducing budgetary resources for cohesion be reconciled with helping lesser-developed regions, which is one of the most visible EU policies in bringing the citizen closer to Europe? Would we really be credible if we therefore precluded large areas from helping to realise the achievement of the Lisbon Agenda?" The two presidents state, moreover, that, in a letter to Robin Cook, President of the Party of European Socialists (PES), they asked that the PES Manifesto for the forthcoming EP elections take a clear position on this issue.