Mr President, on behalf of my group and on my own behalf, I would like to thank the general rapporteur, Mr Costa Neves, and the other two rapporteurs, Mrs Buitenweg and Mr Seppänen. From a budgetary point of view, by 2002, the rhythm of implementation of appropriations must have reached cruising speed: there is no overlapping with the previous programming period and there can be no delay in the implementation of programmes. It is a year in which the forecasts contained in the financial perspectives can be fully achieved. In order for the two powers responsible for implementation (the Commission and the Member States) to achieve this fully, the rapporteur offers us a strategy for reducing the backlog; in order to support his strategy, he uses the performance targets identified by the Commission at the request of an initiative presented by the European Peoples’ Party for the 2001 Budget. It is important that this House accepts the Costa Neves strategy in the field of payment appropriations. Without decisive action by the European Parliament, it is going to be difficult to achieve an interinstitutional political commitment on improving the quality of expenditure, which has always been our priority. We also support the strategy of the general rapporteur in relation to the new demands, the Commission’s letter of amendment, where it refers to the mobilisation of the flexibility instrument in order to finance the new structural needs, the restructuring of the Spanish and Portuguese fleets which fished in Moroccan waters, which is awaiting the proposed funding the Commission has promised but has still not presented. The rapporteur has also presented both pro memoria in the budget lines for that restructuring, and also in relation to a programme for increasing the competitiveness of the border regions with a view to the enlargement of the Union. Let us hope that between the first and second readings, the Commission will clarify the situation of this programme and the possible funding proposals. Furthermore, we have the insoluble problem of the lack of financial resources in Category 4 for external action. This problem threatens to tarnish budgetary procedure after budgetary procedure. The Union takes on more and more external commitments, often without consulting this House. Later, unilateral cuts are decided on in the traditional external action lines under the pretext of deficient implementation, responsibility for which is always attributed to external factors and never to the functioning of the Commission or the Member States themselves. Parliament must therefore, year after year, become embroiled in a pointless fight to remove the cuts which both the Commission, in its preliminary draft, and the Council, in its first reading, carry out. This prejudices the role which must be played by such important committees as Foreign Affairs, Development and the Committee on Budgets itself. A very good example this year is the EUR 125 million for the never-signed fishing agreement with Morocco. It has never been explained why the Commission included these appropriations in the reserve, but the true consequence is that the rapporteur has had to employ (and the political groups support him) a strategy of cuts in order to achieve the mobilisation of these fishing appropriations which were never used. Honest interinstitutional cooperation must be based on recognition of the budgetary prerogatives of each of the institutions. To wait for the November conciliation to resolve fundamental issues weakens the role of the parliamentary negotiation and the role of the tripartite dialogues for the whole year. We in the European Peoples’ Party consider essential to the good operation of the budgetary procedure, amongst other things, the harmonisation of legislative and budgetary procedures, the genuine participation of the European Parliament in the creation of the rules of the game, that is, the Financial Regulation, prior knowledge of the Commission’s working programme, more active involvement by Parliament in the budgetary element of the Commission reform, etc. All these aspirations are contained in our amendments, which we will put to the vote on Thursday, and which we hope will receive majority support.

Political group: PPE-DE