21/10/2005 (Agence Europe) -Democratici di sinistra MEP Gianni Pittella, rapporteur for the budget of the EU in 2006, has issued a press release in which he comments on the contribution of the European Commission to the Summit of Hampton Court, stating that President Barroso "clearly did the right thing" in asking Tony Blair to take the opportunity to raise the issue of the financial perspectives 2007-2013 (see EUROPE 9052). However, the parliamentarian feels that the Commission's ideas contain "nothing at all new, apart from the initiative of an 'anti-shock' initiative to face up to the effects of globalisation". On the subject of the CAP, "the proposals of the Parliament for partial national co-funding are far braver than those of the Commission", he said, adding: in effect, this partial national co-funding would help to free up "90 billion EUR in favour of research and innovation, and this would really be an important step towards writing a new budget for the Union".