Mr President, let me begin by saying that it is a great pleasure and an honour for me to address the House under your Presidency for the first time. I should like to make it clear that I am speaking primarily on behalf of the Committee on Budgetary Control. The rapporteurs – whom I also wish to congratulate on their work – have both pointed out that the Committee on Budgetary Control gave this matter very careful consideration and this is reflected in the reports. We did so because we want the proceedings of the Convention to be a success. This is our unanimous view, and I would like to make that clear. On this basis, we will be voting for the supplementary and amending budget which is contained in the report submitted to this House by the Committee on Budgets. However, it must be clear that this extraordinary budgetary procedure is a one-off; under no circumstances can it constitute a precedent for the future. This has been emphasised by the rapporteurs. Furthermore, the budgetary transactions must be conducted with maximum transparency and clarity, not least in order to justify the trust and hopes invested in the Convention. Although the Committee on Budgets is satisfied with the agreed procedures, a number of key issues remain unresolved as regards budgetary control. We have set these out in our statement, which was drafted in great haste, and we note that some of these points have been included in the resolution, for which we are grateful. The main concern, from our point of view, is the granting of discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget which, under the Treaty, is the prime and sole decision of Parliament and is normally non-negotiable. Yet Article 20 of the Council Decision on the financing of the Convention states that the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States shall give a discharge to the Secretary-General of the Convention, after Parliament, the Council and the Commission shall have consented thereto. What exactly does this mean, given that the terms assent or avis conforme are not defined in the various language versions? What procedures are envisaged for this process? A satisfactory solution has yet to be found in this respect. The second issue which inevitably arises is Parliament's access to documents. The Treaty clearly states that the Parliament must receive all documents and information which it deems necessary to the discharge resolution procedure. Yet Article 4 of the motion for a resolution tabled by the Committee on Budgets merely refers to the Court of Auditors in this context. This does not reflect the spirit of the Treaty. As has already been noted, this is a sui generis procedure which diverges in part from the Treaty. Nonetheless, Parliament must have full and free access to all documents. I welcome Article 5 of the motion for a resolution tabled by the Committee on Budgets, which stresses that budgetary procedures, in particular on discharge, will have to comply with ordinary law, should the Convention's remit be extended beyond the period originally projected. I would like to reiterate my hope that we will be able to adopt this report tomorrow and thus get the Convention off to a good start .

Political group: PPE-DE