Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, since the adoption of the 1996 Council Regulation on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community, we have had a new and modified system, ESA 95. However, this new system for budgetary and own resources calculation will not apply until the new own resources decision comes into effect. When ESA 95 was adopted, it was assumed that the new own resources decision would be adopted in 1999. We now know that in fact that did not happen until September 2000. It will probably come into force on 1 January 2002, if all the Member States ratify it without delay. So that is the legal position. It is evident that the Member States have now adjusted their own national accounting systems and that data is no longer available on the 1979 basis. This means that the letter of the Commission's proposal amending the regulation on the determination of Member States' payments to the VAT-based own resource does not match actual practice. We, the entire Committee on Budgets, are assuming that the switch from ESA 79 to ESA 95 will have no impact on the level of own resources, that is neither on the balance between the Member States nor, of course, on the total volume of own resources. So far, so good. Honourable Members will perhaps think that this is a rather dry subject, but we have taken advantage of this opportunity under the codecision procedure, and we should never forego any opportunity to emphasise the importance of own resources in setting the European Union's budget and financial perspective. When you do that, it does not seem so dry any more, because it is no secret that Parliament, as one arm of the budgetary authority, would like to have full budget rights, that is to say codecision not just on expenditure but also on the revenue side. That is why we are now trying to take a tiny step towards that goal. The Commission is willing to actively support us in this task. I really wish to specifically thank the Commissioner very sincerely for that. It is willing to present a working paper on the state of play regarding the collection of own resources to us at the beginning of the budget process. This document will also provide information on good and in some cases not so good collection practice in the Member States. And it will provide us with a good basis for discussion, for a debate with the Council on EU revenue. However, it is also no secret that on this issue the Council's approach is just as unwieldy as the rather long title of the regulation whose amendment we are discussing right now. Not only will it not consider codecision with Parliament on own resources, as was apparent at Nice, it does not even want to talk with us in either a formal or informal trialogue. And please note that we are not talking about negotiations here, just discussions. The Council is simply refusing to cooperate with Parliament on this – and not just refusing to cooperate but refusing to grant Parliament some of its parliamentary rights. This not only affects the budget, it seems to be a general trend at present. Members are having to fight for their parliamentary rights as regards the framework legislation on financial services. We are having to fight as regards the directive on the European Company statute. We are having to fight over human resources for the common foreign and security policy. I really do not claim that this is an exhaustive list, but one thing is clear: safeguarding Parliament's rights is not something that can be taken for granted in 2001 – Members themselves have to constantly fight to secure these rights. That is why I am utterly convinced that my colleagues, including the chairman of the Committee on Budgets, will firmly support us when we insist that there should at least be a discussion with the Council on our own resources. (Applause)

Political group: PSE