Mr President, we are going through a difficult time in the budget. I would very much like to congratulate everyone on what has been achieved, because it was not an easy budget. I would like to say that category 3 and especially social employment policy were given a great deal of attention anyway in this budget. Apart from this, we have had to deal with a very chaotic procedure. My personal wish has always been to reach a statutory budget, one which could be signed by the President. It looks as if this might be feasible. Whether this is done via the plan proposed by Colom, to put it in these terms, so the budget as it was adopted by our Committee on Budgets, or via an agreement concluded at the last minute with the Council. In both cases, we would have a statutory budget. This is, to my mind, the strength of this Parliament. We ultimately decide what the budget is going to be rather than some vague compromise or other. The Council can fall in with us and make a compromise, but we can establish the budget ourselves without the help of the Council. This is extremely important. The issue has very much focused on Kosovo. The longer I am steeped in the issue, the more astounded I am by it. First of all, I am astounded by the ease with which ostensibly, representatives from Europe can pledge EUR 500 million just like that. Mrs Buitenweg stated that yes, these EUR 500 million have been pledged. Of course, it is not like that. They have been pledged by people who were not authorised to do this. If I wanted to pledge G 20 000 to Greenpeace and I said: deduct it from Mrs Buitenweg’s salary, then I think she would have something to say about that. The Commission has done exactly that. The Commission keeps bringing up these 500 million. Of course, one can refer to the investigations carried out by the World Bank but quite surprisingly, 500 million will remain the end sum, whoever commissions the investigation. Surely this is not very convincing. This is why I am so pleased that we have agreed with the Council on one point, namely the question that we investigate how much money is really needed, taking into account all aspects. Including the point whether the money volume in Kosovo will not rise too much. If you inject one billion into a country which has a GNP of 1 billion, it then begs the question whether this country can cope with it or not. Are we not doing something wrong here? After the Second World War, we gathered a great deal of experience with the Marshall plan, in France, Germany and in the Netherlands. Top of the agenda always used to be the recovery of the economy and not just donating money without wondering about the consequences for the economy. I think that it is extremely important that we ask the same question here. I think that the possible agreement with the Council will open up this opportunity and that we must welcome it. But please let us also question whether this Union can afford to let all kinds of representatives to distribute gifts abroad which at the end of the day cannot be built into the budget. We should keep questioning this. I regretted the fact that in the first instance, the Commission was unable to gather sufficient substantiating evidence. The Commission needs to do this. It cannot just accept anything and everything.

Political group: PPE-DE