Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if, today, we are discussing at first reading stage the Community budget for the coming year, we are of course talking about politics coated with figures. A lot of the European Parliament's initiatives can be seen in that way. We want to exert pressure on the Council – those who have spoken before me have pointed out how urgently that is needed – but also on the Commission, because many points have not yet been given the consideration they deserve. I will push on with the subject on which Mr Ilgenfritz has just finished speaking, that is to say, the frontier regions. It is just not the case that we have cut something, rather we are of course waiting, Commissioner for a rather feeble communication to be followed up by the presentation of something more from the Commission for the frontier regions, as the Commission has a monopoly on initiative. You were perfectly well able to propose legal foundations for other things in quick order. When it comes to the frontier regions, though, you cover yourself with modesty. But it will not do for you to tell us that you observe Parliament's intentions with great interest. The Commission is being called on to produce an initiative. That is your duty – it is an honourable one – and you cannot evade responsibility for it. So I hope that we will succeed, here in this Parliament on Thursday, in adopting the inclusion of EUR 10.8 million in the reserve for the PRINCE programme. I think this will motivate the Commission to present a corresponding proposal on the frontier regions. The same goes for the issue of the 317 new posts that the Commission has asked for. I think it high time to synchronise the Budget procedure and the Commission's legislative process. We cannot have the situation where we briefly discuss the annual reports on the legislation in preparation if the Budget has, in principle, already been passed. Here, too, it is a matter of ensuring synchronisation of these two activities. So it is right to keep these posts, and the resources for them, in reserve. Mr President-in-Office of the Council, the same is true of the common foreign and security policy. It is enough to make me weep when I hear your disquisitions on how we would be making savings here in an important area. Please bear in mind that we have an interest in dealing with these things as part of the Community Budget, where, to a large degree, they rightly belong. Correspondingly, of course, cuts must be made in the relevant Budget line. The Council cannot get itself a savings tin for this and thus develop activities independently of the Commission and Parliament. There are papers to this effect in the Council. You may be sure that Parliament will not let that go through. The same goes for Europol and Eurojust. I do not propose to go into further detail about this. I wish to extend heart-felt thanks to the rapporteurs, in particular to Carlos Costa Neves and of course Mrs Buitenweg as well, for making our work together so pleasant. We got a bit further with the Parliamentary budget in terms of truth and clarity. It makes little sense to put funds in reserve for the purposes of a law, and then end up spending it on buildings. It is therefore more right and proper to put it straight in the Budget line for buildings where it will be used at year-end anyway. We will, though, have to ensure – and this is a lesson from this year's Budget procedure – that all proposals for our Parliamentary budget are presented by the Bureau as early as May. A procedure such as today's, with many important decisions being taken only in September and immediately before the discussions in the Committee on Budgets, is something we cannot accept. I still have grave concerns about the state of health of our colleagues in the various institutions. We had requested a report on sickness absence for this year. Working in certain institutions is indeed very dangerous, as a lot of people in them are off sick. We will have to get to grips with this and take steps to improve the health of our colleagues in the institutions in question. In conclusion, I really would like to ask – and Terry Wynn has already mentioned this to great effect – that we should now make progress in November on the issue of cooperation, so that, in December, we can adopt a proper and orderly Budget for 2002.

Political group: PPE-DE