Mr President, Commissioner Schreyer, let me, of course, start by thanking both our rapporteurs for the work they have done, which is outstanding. I would like to take today's debate on the guidelines as an opportunity to pause and do a sort of interim report. We have completed the first half of our parliamentary term, and when we recall the tasks that faced us at its outset, what had to be funded by the Budget, what was made available to us and what we allocated to others, we see that the world has, of course, changed a great deal. We have to deal with the problems of the world, which are not without their effects on us. Europe has closed ranks, and we stand alongside the world. We have taken on hitherto unmanageable tasks, and there are yet others for us to take on. The field of foreign policy has been mentioned: extensive aid for reconstruction in the Balkans, aid for Afghanistan and for the people persecuted and harassed there, the fight against the global scourge of AIDS, the disarmament measures that we need to reduce not only the number of landmines but also chemical and biological weapons, and also, for example sending a police task force to the Balkans to ensure that peace can enter there. The field of home affairs and judicial policy has, of course, see us agree, in the aftermath of the events of 11 September, to strengthen Europol and Eurojust and speed up their introduction; one of the Commission's new proposals is the expansion of civil protection in the event of emergencies. In the Convention, we are discussing cross-border structures and future developments. In the field of home affairs and judicial policy, we are discussing immigration and how to control it. Enlargement has been described as a problem area, and in it we have a number of things to sort out both internally and externally; whilst Mr Ferber says that there are calls to rethink the relationship between Categories 7 and 8, we must also note that, as opposed to the original estimates, on the basis of which we assumed that the first six States could be added as early as 2002, this position has of course changed, and that is something we have to be allowed to discuss. We, too, see of course that there is a lack of uptake, and, where too little is taken up, we must not heap up even more. Budgeting is not about demanding more; it is about making proper use of the taxpayers' available resources. There is a need, though, to take note of realities as well; everyone – including those Members of this House who even want to bake bigger cakes – has described the points we want to discuss together in order not to stage enlargement as a sort of cataclysm with the expectation of dramatic overnight change; rather, we have to prepare ourselves. We have to prepare the countries, and part of that involves, of course, our making appropriate provision and discussing it. The capacity for taking the right decisions presupposes that we talk about them. It is, in my opinion, irresponsible to simply stand up and say, for whatever simplistic reasons, that ‘we cannot even think about that’. In the last few years, we have had to move reform of the Commission forward, but we also have internal problems that have to be discussed further. The combating of unemployment must not be forgotten; it is one of our central tasks, and one in which the cooperation procedure has of course enabled us to make progress already. We want to prevent social exclusion. We want to promote technological development and, to that end, to make promotional funds available for ‘e-learning’ and the new technologies. These great challenges, which have arisen in recent years, do not find us in a state of fear. We face this challenge with a confidence which we want to make visible. It is a good thing that this European Union of ours is working together, that we are increasingly trying to present a composite picture to the world we want to work with. We are not sitting here or standing up and simply calling for more money. We must look closely to find what options we have in this Budget. This is, of course, something that any serious housekeeper must do, but we must also highlight the fact that we have other things to do; if they are to work, if, on the one hand, the poor are not to be victims, if we want to help others who endure persecution, then we have to give some thought to how we treat each other. This is not a demand for more money on tap; it is about the purposeful use of money. We have to look carefully at where our money is being spent. Is the best possible use being made of it? If not, then we must redirect it, and apart from that nothing should be declared to be unthinkable. It is not more money that we want, but its purposeful use, and we seek the resources that are needed for Europe to continue to develop in the way constantly, and rightly, called for in all their resolutions by members of the .

Political group: PSE