Madam President, this is the last budget this Parliament will approve and therefore perhaps the last one many of us will vote on. I therefore believe this is a good time to assess our budgetary work throughout this legislature and I confess that my assessment is not wholly favourable. We would like just to focus on positive aspects, such as the improvements in the budgetary procedure, the functioning of our own Committee on Budgets and the achievement of the first review of the financial perspectives since 1993. But we must not forget that the proportion the budget represents in relation to GDP has been reduced, and this is clearly insufficient in view of the Union’s objectives, and paradoxically, each year there is a surplus of appropriations as a result of poor implementation. I believe it is the duty of both the Commission and Parliament to express its opinion on the future financial perspectives so that the next Commission and the next Parliament can use them as a basis for their considerations. Despite its miserly size, the Union’s budget appears all-encompassing and I thank the general rapporteur for his cooperation in fitting in all our various requests. We note that everything from the protection of hazelnut cultivation to a pilot project for helping victims of terrorism has been included. I would like to stress that the regulations on COMs and on the Structural Funds must be complied with and the budget is not the correct stage of the procedure to amend them. Now, if there is one star issue, one objective, ladies and gentlemen, in this 2004 budget, I believe it is preparing the Union for enlargement, for the integration of 10 new States and, based on my experience of having been myself an observer in a candidate country – some years ago now – my prediction is that the integration will be a success. I would add my thanks, in particular, to Parliament for its tenacity and ambition, since the Council’s first reaction was more worthy of obsessive accountants than of politicians aware of the historic challenge facing us: the greatest and most difficult enlargement ever undergone as part of the project of European integration. The Council tried to have everything tied up, refused to review the financial perspectives for several months and has also refused to include the 25 from 1 January. I believe that would have been a political gesture worthy of consideration. Nevertheless, in an almost unprecedented display of frivolity and political demagoguery, some people have tried to cast a shadow over this central objective of the budget by presenting an unjustified amendment which would add EUR 500 million to the appropriations already planned for Iraq. Ladies and gentlemen, we have approved, and on Thursday we are going to approve in plenary session, EUR 100 million in humanitarian aid for that country. The European Commission is asking for, and can only justify, EUR 160 million for 2004 for the Community contribution to the reconstruction of Iraq. I can guarantee that many millions of European citizens who opposed this illegal war, which did not have the support of United Nations, do not understand why the European Union has to provide anything other than humanitarian aid in Iraq. I can guarantee that it will be very difficult for me to explain this to my citizens – very difficult – and the only way I can understand this amendment is as a reflection of a desire to clear a bad conscience after having supported an illegal war. Ladies and gentlemen, there is absolutely no justification for this. The only thing we can justify – now there is a United Nations Resolution – is to contribute to what the Commission is proposing to us in a reasonable manner. Furthermore, I would also like to ask – and I know that Mr Salafranca is about to speak – where the honourable Members from the are going to get it from. From Latin America? From Asia? From Africa? From the Mediterranean? Where are you going to get it from? Because you are perfectly aware that there are no appropriations anywhere, even by stretching the flexibility instrument to its limits. I would therefore ask you to be responsible and aware and to withdraw the amendment, in order that we do not make fools of ourselves and so that the European Union may have a budget which makes it capable of dealing with enlargement and which brings peace. (Applause)

Political group: PSE