Mr President, allow me also to begin by thanking the Danish Presidency for its splendid cooperation so far. Ever since early last winter, when we began work on the 2003 budget, my objective, as rapporteur and as a person responsible for next year’s budgets for eight of the EU institutions, has at any rate been to find a solution in which the EU’s administrative budget is balanced and in which we do not have to ask for extra money by making use of what is known as the flexibility instrument. That has not been an easy task because we had predicted a very large deficit in this budget at the beginning of the year. With the agreement made on 19 July by the EU’s two budget authorities – the Council and Parliament – it has nonetheless proved to be possible. I would maintain that our having now achieved this objective is a very great success for Parliament. We have obtained support for reforms that are necessary, especially in an enlarged EU. The flexibility instrument must not be used for the EU’s administrative budget. We must respect the ceiling for category 5. Following the conciliation, there is now a common commitment to solve the remaining problems in category 5 by means of what is known as frontloading. Doing so is important in that a number of problems remain to be solved during the last months of the year. I am nonetheless convinced that we shall also be able to solve them. In this context, it would be very easy to allow one’s vision to be clouded by all the details, and the budget work is certainly extremely detailed. Together, we have nonetheless created better basic conditions for proceeding further with the historic task of, in a few years’ time, welcoming MEPs from perhaps ten new Member States to this Parliament and to the EU’s other institutions. As I see it, that is absolutely the most important outcome of the conciliation. As early as the beginning of next year, these countries will be able to send observers to what will also become their own Parliament. With the result of the agreement, we are complying not only with our commitments but also with the priorities decided upon by the Committee on Budgets and Parliament at the beginning of this year. It is firstly a question of ensuring that the EU institutions are given the opportunity to prepare for enlargement. Secondly, it is a question of implementing the necessary reforms. Thirdly, the intention is that both objectives should be attained within the budgetary framework. I want to direct my concluding comment concerning the agreement between Parliament and the Council to the Danish Presidency which, in my view, has worked in an extremely effective way and with the clearly defined objective of reaching an agreement. The Danish Presidency has focused upon this task and been constructive and ready to compromise in a way that has made an agreement possible. It has shown a readiness to listen that has not always been characteristic of the Council in this context. I, and no doubt many others too, are grateful for this. The Council has for a long time been criticised for not having always made the same demands of itself as of others. The Council has not itself been prepared to implement the reductions forced upon others. When the Council has cut back on jobs in other institutions, it has not cut back on jobs within the Council itself. A rather more humble attitude may in actual fact be necessary in the future. I hope and believe that, in this respect, the Danish Presidency has played a positive role which will have lasting effects in the future.

Political group: PPE-DE