Brussels, 12/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - Taking the floor, on Wednesday 10 October, at the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), European Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaité once again lamented the fact that there remains just “barely 15% for research, education, external relations (…). This is not enough to face up to globalisation, competition and to carry out further waves of enlargement”. She went on to voice her hopes that “the budget will become the nerve centre of European policy” (see, amongst others, EUROPE 9508).
In answer to the first vice-president of the CoR, Luc Van Den Brande (EPP), who was stressing the fact that Europe was not just an economic project but also a political one, Ms Grybauskaité said that she regretted the fact that “the European budget is considered as a tool for financial redistribution and not as a tool for policy distribution”. The president of the PES Group at the CoR, Mercedes Bresso, harangued the commissioner on the need to “show the citizens that we are creating a large single market, but also a space of economic and social cohesion”. Ms Bresso identified five areas of priority action, “which have the advantage of being visible to the citizens”: research, the environment, the fight against terrorism, the defence policy, external policy and support for regional development policies. Speaking for the ALDE Group, Flo Lucas laid emphasis on the “pivotal effect of the structural funds. The cohesion policy has been effective for the regions”. The president of the UEN Group, Paul O Donoghue, expressed concern at possible “disastrous changes regarding the budget”, particularly regarding the CAP. “What we must make sure of is that the euros spent at European level are spent better than at national level”, the commissioner told those who had taken the floor. “With our small budget, we cannot give everybody money. In the private sector, this is guaranteed bankruptcy”, she added, causing the CoR president, Michel Delebarre, to comment that “the debate is not closed”. (gb)