Brussels, 24/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is well aware that following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, it will be on an “equal footing” with the Council of Ministers of the EU in legislative and budgetary areas. Budgetary procedure will, as a whole, be subject to major changes in the application of the provisions of the new treaty.
By adopting the report by Jutta Haug (PES, Germany) on Thursday 24 April in Strasbourg (499 votes for, 25 against, with 43 abstentions), the EP stresses that “the implementation of the new treaty will require the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission to agree on the modifications to the relevant budgetary and legislative instruments and a new set of rules to ensure a smooth running of the new budgetary procedure, while fully respecting the new inter-institutional balance between the three institutions as laid down in the Lisbon Treaty; is convinced of the absolute necessity to start preparations as soon as possible in parallel to the budgetary procedure 2009 to be ready for the new procedure for the budget 2010”.
By adopting an EPP-ED amendment by a very small majority (275 for, 273 against, with 14 abstentions), the EP considers the "Small Business Act" being prepared by the Commission, is a very important strategy to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and notes that a financial framework and legislative acts are also required to support SMEs in the most appropriate way.
Finally, the EP warns that Parliament will use all the means foreseen by the Institutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 including, inter alia, the use of the legislative flexibility of 5% over the multiannual financial framework (MFF) period 2007-2013 “in order to see its political priorities carried through”. The Commission is instructed (in preparation for the preliminary draft budget - PDB - for 2009) to produce clear, consistent and sound activity statements for each policy area in order to enable all relevant European Parliament committees to thoroughly scrutinise the implementation and expected advancement of the different EU programmes and policies.
2009 budget procedure will be, for all parliamentarians who spoke in the debate on the report of German Social Democrat, Jutta Haug, the beginning of a new era - that of post-Lisbon, an era where the only chance to correct or remove mistakes will be during a single reading. Ms Haug is therefore stressing, backed up by MEPs from the whole political spectrum, the need for an inter-disciplinary approach from the outset, which involves all the different but relevant committees. The budget committee rapporteur also points out that budgetary room for manoeuvre for the current tax year will be quite tight, which means new agencies will not be able to get funding; category IV of the budget is chronically underfunded but Haug insists that the flexibility instrument for external policy be used for unexpected situations; the Commission is expected to better integrate pilot projects in the budget.
Danuta Hübner said that the Commission welcomes this early exchange of views that allows for the budgetary significance of the Lisbon Treaty to be better taken into account. The Commissioner announced that pilot projects would be examined by the Commission by the summer. The Commission said that it was not proposing amendments to programme implementation, but would take initiatives that had little impact on the current margins for the integrated management of external borders (particularly with the strengthening of Frontex), the follow-up of initiatives involving Central Asia (as a “taster” for this initiative but without modifying the financial envelope) and the follow-up of the decisions taken at Bali for the sustainable development contribution.
The president of the budget committee, Reimer Böge (EPP/ED, Germany), believes it is now important to think of applying the new treaty by arranging a transition period and ensuring legal certainty through improved information. Boge explained that pilot projects will genuinely have to include European added value. He concluded with an appeal to the future French presidency to be flexible and not have everything “signed and sealed” at the very beginning. Most parliamentarians saw the main imperative as clearly establishing budget policy priorities. Laszlo Surjan (EPP-ED, Hungary) highlighted the priority of economic growth and job creation and said that citizens had the right to know how their money is used in the budget. Göran Färm from Sweden pointed out on behalf of the Socialist group that implementation of European energy policy and initiatives for tackling climate change demanded appropriate financial instruments. Anne Jensen (ALDE, Denmark) said that the budgetary process should begin earlier, sectoral committees should be better informed and the link between political priorities and their practical application should be clearer. She was critical that external policy always suffered from lack of funding. The sharp rise in prices of foodstuffs would cause problems for the poorest member states, said Polish MEP Zbigniew Kuzmiuk and climate change added to the challenges which could make the situation more difficult for new member states, leading possibly to negative reaction against the European Union. Finnish MEP Esko Seppänen (GUE/NGL) was categorical: the social dimension budget was too low, and he was frankly worried that, in his opinion, it was being “militarised”. From the same group, Portuguese MEP Pedro Guerreiro said that external action amounted to “interference” and that they should not receive Community funding. Finn Ville Itäla was concerned about the EU's Northern Dimension: Commissioner Hübner confirmed that one of the priorities of the Swedish Presidency in the second half of 2009 would be the Baltic Sea Strategy and that the Commission was already working on this, in an inter-service working group under its chairmanship. (L.G./L.C.)