Mr President, I wish to join with the others in thanking our redoubtable duo, Mr Färm and Mr Stenmarck, for their excellent work on behalf of Parliament during this budget procedure. They have both outlined that we are now thinking of a Union which will be extended to at least 25 countries. For both Parliament and the Commission, enlargement is the main emphasis of this budget. I would like to express a personal view. I hope that in future we will avoid too many referenda and too many votes being taken on particular subjects. It might become contagious in this House and we might adopt a resolution and then consider voting again because we have reached the wrong conclusions. That said, I should like to refer to Parliament's and the Commission's budget. Our group has strategies for both these budgets, and they have by and large been implemented as we reach the current stage of the budget procedure. On Parliament's budget, we would like to emphasise the need for extended provision for freelance translation – because this is going to be an important factor in the years ahead. We are pleased that early retirement has been extended to the political groups, and thank the Council for that – even if it is absent from this debate this afternoon. We would like full transparency in the Council in future and for all its legislative discussions to be open to the public. These are questions which all our group supports. On the Commission budget, there are four relevant points. Firstly, on payments and backlog, we would like to see a real effort being made to reduce the EUR 110 billion in commitments. We are asking, as stated in the resolution, for a report from the Commission as to how it is going to achieve this objective of eliminating outstanding commitments. Secondly, on internal policies, we are still looking for better value for money and for some of the monies for information policy to be retained in reserve, because we would like to see savings on administration and human resources. We expect a report from the Commission on this subject by 30 April 2003. Thirdly, on external policies, we would like improved accountability. Therefore, we are supporting the appeal by our rapporteur for more information concerning the interinstitutional agreement between the Council, Parliament and the Commission on the expenditure of money on foreign and security policy. We would also like to know what kinds of expenditure the Council is expecting over the next five years, because we also agree with the rapporteur that it is unhealthy to think that the Council is going to be involved in large expenditure of funds which would not be subject to normal accountability and use. Equally, we are asking the Commission to come forward with some form of thought process. There seems to be some lethargy on the part of the Commission when it comes to thinking through what kind of priorities we should have for foreign and security policy in the future. Lastly, my group would like me to say that we want to see this reform process completed and we need to look at how this whole process is being conducted. We are convinced that progress has been made but we are not yet convinced that this whole programme of reform is going to be implemented. We would like to know that you are out there selling it to the general public and that these reforms will be completed by the end of next year, as the most recent reform document from the Commission stated. But, before we approve the new posts, we would very much like to see the reform elements in place and to know you are convinced that this whole reform process will be completed. If this is not done so by the end of the current term of the Commission and Parliament, we will be in breach of the commitments we made to our electorate to ensure that real institutional reforms are carried out.

Political group: PPE-DE