Mr President, on behalf of my group, I too wish to thank the rapporteurs for their excellent preparatory work and for the sterling work they have done in general. I shall concentrate my comments on the Costa Neves report, as the rapporteur has already said what needs to be said about the Buitenweg report, and she, of course, has the full support of our group. In particular, I would like to draw your attention once again to her comments about multiannual plans. We need long-term planning for the administration of the European Parliament. We are also largely in agreement with the Costa Neves report, and we particularly support the clear priorities it sets. The guidelines should not, of course, go into detail; they should clarify the EU's priorities for next year, budget year 2002 that is. We think that the priorities identified, for example the priority given to agricultural policy, are correct. The foot-and-mouth crisis demonstrates that there is a profound crisis in the EU's agricultural policy. We hope that the mid-term review of Agenda 2000 to be undertaken now will lead to the necessary reform measures being taken, and that it will also result in Parliament being given a greater role in formulating agricultural policy. We regard this as necessary first and foremost because our agricultural policy has led to a widespread collapse of trust amongst the public. We need to recover that trust by means of a change, of course, towards more rural development programmes, and away from market support measures. We also need greater involvement by Parliament in the decision-making process. The priority is no longer additional money, but rather fundamental reform. The second priority is eastward enlargement, which presents enormous challenges for the EU. We very much hope that the appropriations provided for 2000 will actually be implemented. We must utilise these appropriations. We only have to think about environmental policy in the enlargement countries to realise that substantial appropriations are required. That is why I am hoping for more support in committee, and I will take Mr Ferber at his word, as he has already promised this support. I believe that as a committee we must move forward and make appropriate demands, because everything that is not addressed in good time now will return to haunt us later on. In this area in particular there is an urgent need for a reform of EU policies to ensure that eastward enlargement is affordable and feasible in the long term. I believe that the call for the financial perspective to be adjusted is justified. We all know about the problems we had last year with the financing of the Stability Pact for the Balkans, and with the financing of the MEDA Programme. We also have a duty to continue to pay great attention to the area of external actions and to ensure that good work is done in that area, especially with regard to conflict prevention. But this is not just about more money. I believe that this is an area where we need to think more about efficiency. There is an urgent need for reform in various external policy areas. We hope that the additional staff the Commission acquired last year will also lead to greater efficiency in this area. Overall, and I would like to stress this one again, we support all three reports, but we need to put our heads together once more on the subject of eastward enlargement and come up with something more specific.

Political group: Verts-ALE