Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, the Budget 2000 is the budget which will take us into the next millennium. It represents a gesture. It represents a gesture in terms of political content; but it must also be a gesture of how we should actually have to deal with each other. I would like to start by saying that we as a Parliament must thank our two rapporteurs in this respect, with respect to the debate of the Budget 2000, for carrying out excellent work, for getting things under way which have been discussed at length in this House. I remember the new regulation in connection with the Technical Assistance Offices which Commissioner Schreyer referred to this morning. We had a meeting of the Committee on Budgets last week at which very clear commitments were entered into as far as the future is concerned, so that we can expect to make progress here and exercise control. We shall support you in a constructively critical manner on this question of the future development of the Technical Assistance Offices. As far as past experience is concerned, namely the proper deployment of appropriations, we have made a gesture by increasing OLAF staff numbers. We have made quite unequivocal gestures as far as one of the largest items of budgetary expenditure is concerned, namely agricultural policy. We want to break away from mere market price support and move towards rural development and additional appropriations will be provided in forthcoming budgets in order to do so. We have made it clear that only consumers are important in our Europe, which is why we have strengthened the Food Safety Agency, in order to make a gesture at this point, and we have entered relevant appropriations to make up for social weaknesses in the budget, so that progress can be made in combating unemployment. These are things which have been discussed in this Parliament with great unanimity and on which progress has been made on the initiative and with the support of our rapporteurs. The decisive point in this discussion or rather the point which caused us the most work and the most worry was of course the question of how to finance properly one of the greatest challenges facing Europe in the coming years? I refer of course to the Balkans and, more specifically, to Kosovo which will be targeted as a priority next year. You can rest assured that we in this House will do everything to lay solid foundations. We made this very clear during the budgetary procedure. We are interested in having sound foundations so that we do not just lurch from one problem to the next, but so that we can work together on a solid basis for years to come, because the problem in the Balkans is not a problem which can be solved in a year. We have shown very clearly that we do not just want to demand more here; we also want to do our homework. We have made transfers in the budget, very specific transfers. We have not made any general reduction; instead we have said we will make reductions as and where possible. We have expressly made an exception for non-governmental organisations or aid programmes, such as those to combat AIDS in third world countries, which need all the support they can get. We have done all this with a great deal of unanimity. This also demonstrates how important these matters are to us. You have seen for yourself that there is a great deal of unanimity in every debate and in every vote in this House. Completely irrespective of our ideological backgrounds, we have conducted ourselves in a manner which must have made it clear to you that we take the matter and the manner of our dealings with each other very seriously indeed. And this will be our motto for the coming years. I must support Mr Böge all the way on this. We shall also endeavour in the future to create a basis of trust in our dealings with each other, a trust which was perhaps lacking at several junctures this year, both on our part towards you and on your part towards us. So we are holding out our hand, as Social Democrats and Socialists, as a sign that, if tomorrow morning you in fact table the declaration as described, we shall support it. And we shall ensure that there is a proper budget for the year which also offers a perspective. But we shall also work consistently towards ensuring in the coming years that again we do not lurch from one problem to another but that we have a serious plan on which everyone can build, especially those who really need the money. In other words those now living inside the European Union and those living outside the Union who have a right to our solidarity. We shall continue to do our homework in the future. We shall take our potential as a Parliament very seriously, on that you can depend. But we shall also make an effort to work more closely with you, so that we do not need, as in this year, to find a solution so close to the end of the year. When you have trialogues and conciliation, you should use them for their intended purpose so that compromises can be found before the eleventh hour. We call on you to move towards us and we will move towards you. But, as we have said, you can be sure that we also know what we can do if we are trifled with!

Political group: PSE