Vladimír Maňka, rapporteur. – (SK) Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your inspiring speeches. I would like to thank the representatives of the European institutions, the Presidency of the European Parliament, the shadow rapporteurs, coordinators and all of you.

Everything has taken place this year under the leadership of two Budget Committee chairs. In the first half of the year, it was Mr Böge, and in the second, Mr Lamassoure. Mr Böge, Mr Lamassoure, I am sure I am not the first to tell you that you have both made a great contribution to the work of the committee and the entire budget process.

I appreciate the cooperation of the Swedish Presidency and the Commissioner. The women and men who do not appear officially are our advisors, assistants and administrative staff. However, they are key people. Without them we would not have achieved today’s result. I would like to thank them all.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Lisbon Treaty will have an impact on the entire range of services of the European Parliament and the other institutions. For the European Parliament, codecision making will increase dramatically, covering up to 95% of the legislation in areas such as freedom, security and justice, agriculture, fisheries, research and structural funds. There will be greater use of qualified majority voting in the Council and the creation of a number of new legal foundations in areas such as tourism, sport, energy, civil defence and administrative cooperation. This will increase the legislative activities of the EU generally with a significant overall impact on the powers of the European Parliament and its activities and therefore also on the need to boost the administration.

In the coming months, we will examine and quantify the financial resources necessary for implementing the new policies of the EU connected with the Lisbon Treaty. I believe that together, we will succeed in setting out the next budget process.