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Wednesday, 17 December 2008 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Draft general budget 2009 as modified by the Council (all sections) (debate)
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  Valdis Dombrovskis (PPE-DE). - (LV) Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, with regard to the European Union’s draft budget for 2009 I would like to stress that the most important thing in this budget is not what has been done but what has not yet been done. The draft EU budget for 2009 had already made provision for an amount of payment appropriations 3% lower than this year and, in addition, the European Commission has come forward with a proposal to reduce the amount of payment appropriations still further by EUR 3.5 billion this year and by EUR 1.1 billion next year. I doubt that the reduction in the amount of EU budget payments is the most satisfactory response to the financial and economic crisis. In the European economic recovery plan, the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund measures laid down, the simplification of the rural development fund procedures and the speeding up of fund acquisition, the payment of EU fund advances and the increase in the share of EU co-financing have not yet been reflected in the amount of payment appropriations set out in the European Union’s 2009 budget. However, the truth is that whether it is possible to regard next year’s budget as a successful response by the European Union to the financial and economic crisis will depend precisely on these measures and on the question of how far they really will increase payment amounts. I hope that the EU institutions will demonstrate their ability to react quickly to challenges, and not be engulfed in the usual bureaucracy. In general, we should welcome the European Commission’s proposal to allocate an extra EUR 5 billion to increasing the European Union’s competitiveness. However, the source of fundingresources from the common agricultural policy – is difficult to comprehend. If there are EUR 5 billion to spare in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, then why is the European Commission doing nothing to ensure fair competition within the internal agricultural market and at least in part to even out the inappropriate differences between the levels of direct payments made to the farmers of various EU Member States? Thank you for your attention.

 
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