Kyösti Virrankoski (ALDE). - (FI) Mr President, first, I wish to thank the rapporteurs, Mrs Haug and Mr Lewandowski, for their excellent work. I would also like to thank Commissioner Grybauskaitė and her closest assistant, Mr Romero, for the excellent cooperation they have shown all year long, as well as the Presidency for its constructive participation in the preparation of the budget.

I only wish to address one issue, which is that of the Structural Funds. This year, we repaid monies to the Member States, in one form or another, as unused appropriations. In Amending Budget Number 2, we reprogrammed EUR 2.8 billion, and in Amending Budget Number 9, we returned EUR 4.5 billion in unused payments.

Against this background, it is astonishing that the Commission is proposing a EUR 5 billion recovery package while, at the same time, it has not even used up the funds budgeted for structural policy. The reason is the control and monitoring system, which is extremely complex. In many countries, it is still unapproved.

The European Parliament proposed a joint resolution in conciliation that would recognise the need for simplification and the existence of structural shortcomings. The Commission and the Council did not want to go along with this resolution. The European Council, however, has just proposed adopting virtually the very same position and, indeed, the very real need for simplification and greater efficiency needs emphasising.