Clegg (ELDR). – Mr President, I would also like to lend my support to those who have signalled their congratulations to Eryl McNally for doing an excellent job in piloting this through Parliament and of course in conducting negotiations on our behalf with the other institutions.

The rapporteur has already covered the main issues of substance, with all of which my group and I entirely agree. I only wish to make two additional wider points at this stage. Firstly, Intelligent Europe is not and should not be the title for this programme but, as the rapporteur herself suggested, should of course be the umbrella title for everything we do in the energy policy environment.

As many colleagues know, we are facing a glut of legislation in the energy field today, this week and next week, ranging from combined heat and power through to trans-European networks and to the all-important electricity and gas liberalisation package. Collectively we hope all of those measures together represent a real, intelligent policy. If you will forgive me for using this ghastly phrase, they represent a 'joined-up policy, joined-up government'. To that end the Commissioner's declaration today is very important and much to be welcomed.

The second point is about the budget. We warmly support the rapporteur's success in raising the overall budget, but it is worth noting that the EUR 200m, which is of course a great deal of money to you and me, is actually extremely little when compared to the enormous range of tasks which the Intelligent Energy programme is supposed to tackle.

EUR 200m could easily be absorbed in any one of the four titles and for that reason alone – and of course this is something we have seen in other areas as well, the trans-European networks for instance – the seed money being put forward by the European Union is massively dwarfed by the tasks to be performed. For that reason, we really do hope that procedures will be as efficient as possible, will avoid duplication, will avoid unnecessary administrative and bureaucratic checks and will give the taxpayers the right bang for their bucks.